Hyderabad:Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has said social security pensions would be provided to all persons suffering from thalassemia and sickle cell anemia in the state.

He asked officials to initiate the process of identifying eligible beneficiaries and sanctioning the relief. Reddy, who held a meeting with officials of the Panchayat Raj department, directed them to begin the distribution of the pensions to the identified beneficiaries from August 15, an official release late on Thursday night.

Both thalassemia and sickle cell anemia are an inherited blood disorders. He told officials to ensure that all widows, single women, weavers, and toddy tappers across the state get the pensions as per the existing scheme. The CM also instructed that every single village in the state should have blacktop (tar) road and also Gram Panchayat office. He asked the officials to ensure that the ‘Indiramma’ free sarees distributed to 10 million women are of high quality and feature attractive designs. He suggested taking inputs from National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) students for the design of the sarees. The CM further instructed the officials to take appropriate precautions regarding drinking water supply in view of possible deficit rainfall due to El Nino conditions.

Under the ‘Cheyutha’ social security pension scheme, the government provides monthly pension of Rs 4,000 for eligible beneficiaries, including senior citizens, widows, single women, beedi workers and AIDS, filaria and dialysis patients.