Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday announced a near-threefold increase in the monthly pension for the aged, widows, and disabled under the state government’s social security scheme, the munificence coming months before the Assembly elections.
Nitish, Bihar’s longest-serving chief minister who has ruled almost continuously for nearly two decades, is eyeing yet another term in the October-November polls, banking on support from the BJP and other NDA allies.
He announced the increased pensions — the first such hike since he came to power in 2005 — in a post on X in the morning, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had virtually sounded the poll bugle at a rally in the state.
“I am happy to inform you that under the Social Security Pension Scheme, all the elderly, disabled and widowed women will now get a pension of ₹1,100 instead of ₹400 every month,” Nitish posted.
The increase will come into effect from July, he said, with the sum transferred to the accounts of the “1 crore 9 lakh 69 thousand 255 beneficiaries” by the 10th of every month, he said.
For these impoverished people, the ₹1,100 cash dole would count as a substantial amount. Most of the scheme’s beneficiaries are also recipients of free food grains under the central government’s PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, and the combination is expected to work in the NDA’s favour.
There’s been a longstanding demand to hike the social security pensions. The principal Opposition, the RJD, had promised to raise the sum to ₹1,500 a month while new entrant Jan Suraj, led by former political strategist Prashant Kishor, offered ₹2,000 a month.
Nitish, battling the twin challenges of accumulated anti-incumbency and concerns over his health in his twilight years, has now attempted to steal a march over his opponents by announcing the hike.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav claimed credit for the hike, saying the government had given in to pressure from his party.
“The Mahagathbandhan government is coming and this is causing tension, so the copycats of the NDA are copying our announcements and increasing pension,” Tejashwi posted.
The NDA governments in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had earlier overcome voter anger and returned to power riding on cash dole schemes for poor women that they had announced ahead of Assembly elections.
Apart from the increased dole, the Bihar government has taken certain other decisions that are expected to help it in the election. On Thursday, it approved a substantial increase in the allowances paid to elected panchayat representatives, who wield considerable influence on the ground.
The monthly allowances for the zilla parishad president and vice-president were increased from ₹20,000 to ₹30,000 and from ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 respectively, and that for the elected village heads or mukhiyas, from ₹5,000 to ₹7,500.
Nitish has also doubled the financial powers granted to the mukhiyas, who can now sanction ₹10 lakh worth of schemes under the Centre’s rural employment guarantee scheme, compared with ₹5 lakh earlier.