More than 4 lakh Delhi senior citizens’ pension withheld due to Centre's non-payment of share

For the last one and a half years, Centre has not been giving its share of Rs 200 for the pension of the elderly, AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said (Photo: India Today)

By Pankaj Jain: The Petitions Committee of the Delhi Legislative Assembly on Wednesday said pensions of 4,26,058 senior citizens have been withheld in the national capital due to the centre’s non-payment of its meagre share and the finance department’s arbitrary roadblocks.

Taking cognisance of such complaints, the Petitions Committee of the Delhi Legislative Assembly summoned officials of the finance department as well as those of the social welfare department.

Giving details about the meeting, MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “The committee has learnt that out of the pension of Rs 2,000 given to the elderly, some 1,11,361 people get a share of Rs 200 from the central government and Rs 1,800 from the Delhi government. For the last one and a half years, the Centre has not been giving its share of Rs 200 for the pension of the elderly. There is a constant delay of two-three months in the pension of the elderly on part of the finance department because of the non-payment of central contribution of Rs 200.

"The Petitions Committee of Delhi Legislative Assembly summoned officials of the Finance Department and Social Welfare Department today. We have directed them to find a permanent solution to the problem immediately," he said.

Saurabh Bharadwaj, who is also the Chairman of the Petition Committee, said, “For the last couple of months, MLAs in Delhi have been complaining that the pension that is provided by the Delhi Government to senior citizens has been delayed by 3-4 months. Even before the festival of Diwali, the Petitions Committee had instructed the officials to immediately clear the pension of senior citizens that had been held up for 2-3 months."

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"Today a meeting was again held on this issue and the officials of the Social Welfare Department informed the committee members that out of the Rs 2000 pension that is given to some senior citizens, a component of Rs 200 comes from the central government. The remaining amount of Rs 1800 is provided by the state government," the AAP leader said.

"Because of this, the government file on pensions keeps going back and forth between the Social Welfare Department and the Finance Department and due to this the pension has been getting delayed by 3 months. Every three months, the Social Welfare Department asks the Finance Department what is to be done about this Rs 200 component. The Finance Department asks it to provide this component out of their own funds, and then this file travels between the two departments and therefore the pension for senior citizens gets delayed by around three months," he explained.

'FIND PERMANENT SOLUTION'

The AAP MLA added, “Today we have instructed the Finance Department to find a permanent solution to this problem. We have asked them to assume that the Central Government will not provide the funds for its component and asked them to take the entire amount of Rs 2000 from the Delhi Government. We also asked them that if, by chance, the Central Government pays its share then the money can be adjusted later.”

Furthermore, he also pointed out that the Principal Secretary (Finance) did not attend today's meeting.

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"We have asked the officials of the Finance Department to show some sensitivity and urgency in resolving such issues as it affects the livelihood of senior citizens of Delhi," Bhardwaj said.

The AAP MLA said that the Delhi government is ready to give an extra Rs 200 for the pension of the elderly, but the finance department rotates these files for this Rs 200 for 3 months.

"The same process goes on again and again after every three months due to which there is delay in pensions. There is a slight fault of the center in this and a major fault of the finance department. Today, we asked them to find a permanent solution. The officials of the Finance Department and Social Welfare Department have assured the committee that this problem will be resolved soon," he added.

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