Over 1.2 million Georgian citizens will benefit from a state-funded one-time allowance programme, Davit Tkeshelashvili, the minister for healthcare, labor and social welfare, said at a government meeting on October 10.

President Saakashvili recently promised funding for socially vulnerable people and pensioners, saying that “life is getting expensive.”

The recipients -pensioners and teachers - he said, would get a one-time “compensation package” of GEL 50 for electricity and GEL 50 for gas. Those in rural areas would receive the same amount, but for electricity and wheat, as some areas had no gas supply.

“We should do our best to ensure that nobody is cold and hungry in winter,” President Saakashvili said on October 8 during a meeting with PM Nogaideli.

The programme, the prime minister said on October 10, would start next week.

Minister Tkeshelashvili said that there were about 835,000 pensioners and 400,000 socially vulnerable persons registered in Georgia.

Opposition politicians have alleged that the scheme is an obvious attempt to allay public discontent amid an ongoing political standoff between the two sides.