Cornered over pension dues, govt releases Rs1,220 crore

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 21

After facing embarrassment in the Vidhan Sabha over the non-payment of social security pensions today, the Congress government on Wednesday evening released Rs 1,220 crore due to various accounts for one year.

The government released Rs 413.77 crore for pension benefits, Rs 147.49 crore general provident fund, bills of office expenditure Rs 119.38 crore, and Aashiward/Shagun scheme Rs 69 crore, among other heads.

This is perhaps for the first time that the state government has opened its treasury during the ongoing financial year to clear all its dues. It, however, has not cleared the pendency with the treasury even as this is the second tranche of major release by the government in a week. It had released Rs 690 crore on Saturday.

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal told The Tribune that Rs 40 crore had been released to the Police Department, Rs 46.98 crore under schemes of NABARD, Rs 22.23 crore for development of infrastructure for judiciary, Rs 6.57 crore as honorarium for nambardars, and Rs 7.34 crore for externally aided schemes. “Besides, we have released Rs 299 crore for various central schemes as the state’s share,” he said.

The development took place after the Capt Amarinder Singh government was cornered in the House by MLAs, cutting across party lines. The MLAs took on the government over its failure to release funds for social security schemes. The issue was first raised by Majitha MLA Bikram Singh Majithia, who was supported by Nazar Singh Manshahia and Baljinder Kaur, both AAP MLAs.

Majithia first cornered Social Security Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot during the Question Hour, asking him to specify the number of beneficiaries to whom the benefit of Aashirwad scheme had been extended in 2017-18. The minister first struggled to answer and then could only muster that Rs 37 crore had been released by the government to clear the dues. “We have cleared the dues that your government left behind,” he said, pointing to Majithia. The MLAs then mocked at the government over pension dues.

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