AP Village Volunteers Get Busy With Distribution Of Pension and Ration

AMARAVATI: Even as the  Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission on Sunday directed all District Collectors to keep the ward volunteers away from the election process for the urban local body polls scheduled for March 10, the village and ward volunteers are in the process of distributing the monthly  pension and ration for the people in the State.

The distribution of pension amount under the YSR Pension Kanuka has commenced across the State from Monday morning. By 9.30 AM, 62.27 per cent of pensions have been disbursed, where more than 38.23 lakh people have received pension so far.

In Andhra Pradesh, 61.40 lakh people are eligible for pension and for this purpose, the State Government has allocated Rs 1,478.83 Crore. The pension amount will be distributed to beneficiaries by 2.66 lakh volunteers. Pensions will be provided to the beneficiaries through Biometric iris recognition scanners. In addition to that, Artificial Intelligence-based Realtime Beneficiary Identification System (RBIS) is used for facial authentication of the beneficiaries.

Meanwhile the door delivery of ration goods to beneficiaries for the month of March will start from Monday in the towns. The Civil Supplies Department has decided to distribute the February quota of ration in rural areas until the third of this month and the March quota from the 4th. Deliveries will be made from Monday to the beneficiaries in the villages where 100 per cent ration distribution has already been completed.

The State government endeavours to distribute ration goods to the poor from the 1st to 15th every month directly to their doorstep. The quota for the month of February was distributed in the urban areas from the first and in the rural areas from the 18th.

For ration distribution, there are 9,260 mobile vehicles being used and for this the government has increased the amount given to those plying the vehicles from Rs 16,000 to Rs 21,000 per month with the aim of generating more revenue. The Civil Supplies Department will pay Rs 13,000 per month for vehicle rent, Rs 5,000 for helper charges and Rs 3,000 for petrol charges per vehicle that is used for the ration distribution