Old-age pensioner denied pension for a year

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 11

Joginder Singh can barely walk without the help of a walker, but he came to Circuit House today in the hope that his plea would not go unheard this time. He lives in Kucha Buta Singh near the Golden Temple.

Like him, hundreds of old-age pensioners today reached by rickshaw or hiring an auto-rickshaw to the spot where veteran firebrand BJP leader Lakshmi Kanta Chawla had arranged their meeting with the Deputy Commissioner, Ravi Bhagat.

“For the past nearly a year, I have not received any pension from the government for reasons best known to them,” the octogenarian said. He said he has two daughters, they were married and he was living separately. He said his daughters visit him. “Though it is a paltry sum, it proves helpful for people like us who have no other source of income,” Joginder said.

Subhash Sharma, who originally hails from Naushehra village and now lives at Tung Bala on the Majitha road, said he too had not received his pension for the past one and a half year. He said when he visited the social security office, he was informed that his account was closed. He was shown ‘dead’ during the verification.

Kanso, a resident of the Gujjarpura area, while telling her tale of woe said her son had died while his two grandsons are labourers. She said it was very difficult to make both ends meet.

Similarly, Madha Singh from Gujjarpura area said the government was giving just a paltry amount as old age pension and that too in irregular manner. The delay in paying the pension is frequent. He said that the government should provide it regularly considering the old age of the beneficiaries. It is very difficult for them to make rounds of the government offices. Almost all of them were illiterate, he said.

Chawla said she had given the accounts and forms of hundreds of persons, whose names were struck off the list for unknown reasons on the pretext of verification, to the Deputy Commissioner. She said only 300 of them had received their pension this month while the remaining were still pending.

Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat who gave patient hearing to the grievances of all the beneficiaries said that around 5,000 beneficiaries were facing the problem out of the total 1.20 lakh old-age pensioners in the district. He said they were not getting pensions due to some fault in the account numbers or some other reasons. He said that they officials have taken the account numbers of pensioner who arrived today and pension would be reach in their accounts. About those whose names were struck off, he said they forms would be submitted and pensions would be released to them along with arrears also.