Sahara Scheme for bed-ridden patients will continue, says CM

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today assured that the government would ontinue the Sahara Scheme, started by the previous BJP government, and clear the pending pensions under the scheme to the eligible individuals.

Under this scheme, patients suffering from chronic diseases are given a pension of Rs 3,000 per month. “The scheme will continue with some amendments. The eligible person for the pension will have to provide a verification certificate given by the CMO,” the Chief Minister said.

Earlier, Health Minister Dhani Ram Shandil said that 33,181 eligible persons in the state had been given pension under this scheme in the last three year. “As many as 1,100 cases under this scheme were pending, which will be cleared soon,” he said.

On the joint question of Satpal Satti and Randhir Sharma, Shandil said the pendency was mainly due to the fact that people had not uploaded the required documents. “The pending cases will be cleared as soon as the documents are uploaded,” he said.

Intervening on the supplementary question of MLA Janak Raj, Sukhu said that his government would continue the Sahara scheme. “We have spotted some disparity in the number of beneficiaries. In some districts, the number of beneficiaries is high while it’s comparatively low in other districts. We will look into the reasons for the disparity. All pending pensions will be cleared soon,” the CM said.

Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur urged the Chief Minister to look at the scheme with a humanitarian angle as the people receiving the pension were chronically ill and most were bed-ridden and totally dependent on their families. The CM assured the scheme would continue with the same spirit as when it was started.