10 july 2012
Faulty pension verification leaves many penniless
The Hindu
IN DIRE STRAITS: Fed up senior citizens from Mahalakshmi Layout
constituency, who have not been receiving old age pension for months
now, address a press conference in Bangalore on Tuesday. Photo: K.
Murali Kumar
‘Endless political drama has drawn attention away from issues like social security schemes’
“I have not received old age pension for the last six
months and I have no money to buy even medicines. I am living on what
other people give me out of charity,” said Sakamma, aged around 90, who
finds it difficult to move even with the help of a walking stick.
She
was among several people from the Mahalakshmi Layout constituency who
have not received old age, widow or disability pensions for between six
months and a year, who addressed a press conference here on Tuesday.
They alleged that the “faulty verification process” had robbed many
eligible people of their only source of subsistence.
Cutting back
Fifty-year-old
Padma, who is disabled, suffers from cancer, and has a husband who is
paralysed waist down, showed prescriptions from Kidwai Hospital and
said: “I have had to compromise on my medicines because I buy them with
my pension money.”
MLA of the constituency, N.L.
Narendra Babu, claimed that about 8,000 bona fide beneficiaries in his
area alone had not been receiving pensions for months now. “If such is
the situation in Bangalore, it is hard to imagine how it would be in
rural areas.”
Indifference
He said that
anganwadi workers, entrusted with the task of verifying huge number of
pension holders, had not carried it out meticulously. “The verification
notices were thrown into the houses and there was no effort to find each
pension beneficiary and verify the claim,” he said.
There
were also instances of applications not being processed despite being
submitted several times to Nemmadi Kendras, he said. Some people, whose
applications were accepted, were not getting the money, he added.
Distractions
“The
whole system reeks of irresponsibility and unaccountability,” said Mr.
Babu, adding that the endless political drama in the State had taken the
attention away from real issues like social security schemes. Those
denied pensions will hold a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s
office on Friday demanding justice.
