Good news for beneficiaries of Madhu Babu Pension under the social security scheme. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced an increase of Rs 500 in the monthly pension amount under the Madhu Babu Pension scheme.
With this hike, a beneficiary will be entitled to receive a minimum monthly pension of Rs 1000. The beneficiaries will get the revised pension amounts from the current month. The pension will be paid to the beneficiaries between February 20 and 25.
The scheme has three slabs of Rs 500, Rs 700 and Rs 900. After the hike, beneficiaries in the lowest slab of Rs 500 will receive Rs 1000 and similarly, the other slabs will also see a revision by the same amount.
With this hike, the state government has to bear an additional expenditure of Rs 3683 crore per annum.
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As per sources, the number of beneficiaries under the scheme went up by 4.13 lakh last year. A total of 36.75 lakh people, mainly senior citizens, widows, physically challenged persons, unmarried women, cured leprosy patients, AIDS victims, transgenders, and children orphaned by Covid-19, are receiving pension benefits.