MP cabinet hikes pension amount, over 4 lakh people to benefit

In a move that will benefit over 4.39 lakh pensioners in Madhya Pradesh, the state cabinet today cleared a proposal to hike the pension amount by more than double as per the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.

The cabinet also gave its nod to double the monthly honorarium of anganwadi workers.

The decisions come months ahead of the state Assembly elections that are due by the end of the year.

"The state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan approved the proposal to provide the benefits of the Seventh Pay to the pensioners (including retired government employees and those getting family pension)," public relations minister Narottam Mishra said.

"Effectively, pension would go up by 2.57 times. This would put an additional burden of Rs 850 crore on the state exchequer. This would benefit 4.39 pensioners in the state," he said.

The pensioners would get the benefit with retrospective effect starting from January 1, 2016.

Mishra said that the state cabinet also gave its nod to the proposal to double the monthly honorarium of anganwadi workers to Rs 10,000 from the present Rs 5,000.

The monthly honorarium of assistant anganwadi workers has also been increased to Rs 5,750 from Rs 3,250, he said.

The cabinet also gave its go-ahead to a scheme of providing a diet allowance of Rs 4,000 per month to pregnant women labourers.

Under the scheme, a pregnant woman labourer will get an assistance of Rs 4,000 per month for nutritional diet, and Rs 12,000 post-delivery assistance.

According to Mishra, the move would benefit 8.64 lakh women labourers in the unorganised sector in the state.

The minister said the cabinet also gave its nod to the implementation of National Health Protection Mission (Ayushman Bharat), which would cover 83.81 families of labourers working in the unorganised sector. This scheme would be launched in the state on August 15, 2018.