Senior citizens, especially those who are economically weak, physically challenged, widows etc need special treatment in the twilight days of their age but unfortunately, it has been observed that wherever they come in contact with Government Departments, they get a rough deal. Those, who may not be willingly doing so with them are, however, not exerting a bit more either to see that they were comforted , not to speak of those who choose a lackadaisical approach to their problems and under one pretext or the other, make them run from the proverbial pillar to post thinking, perhaps, they were not to reach that age and stand from the other side of the table waiting to have their work attended to. For the last one year, Department of Social Welfare has been tossing with as many as 3000 pension cases of the eligible senior citizens falling under Integrated Social Security Scheme and finally has stopped paying them the monthly pension. It may be recalled , that the security scheme is centrally sponsored and is subject to strict financial and end use protocol which among other things means, funds not released or not spent must be returned to the source .
We do not straightaway park all the blame at the doors of the Department of Social Welfare as certain discrepancies in bank account numbers, proof of residence or even non filing of ‘alive’ certificates or whatever, must have come in the way of releasing the pension amount but what has been done to help the concerned beneficiaries overcome these problems. Absolutely nothing, except as we have reports, to pester them to arrange papers and keep on directing them from one centre to the other. Times are difficult but to make them more difficult is totally uncalled for especially for those as under reference , who have more hopes pinned in the Babus sitting in the chairs in the offices and have endurance to wait rather than assert and voice with a high pitch or even protest because of age factor.
That hundreds of underprivileged persons, otherwise eligible for the monthly pension of Rs.1000 in Kashmir valley, have not received it for the last one year due to whatever reasons, must be a cause of concern to those in charge of the officialdom as it reflects on their commitment to the sense of duty and non fulfilment of the very aim for which the concerned department is set up. If before one year, the concerned pensioners were getting their pensions and everything was in order, what happened thereafter? Where did the discrepancies sprout and what methodology is employed by the concerned department to sort those out except throwing all the onus on the pensioners to update their particulars to the satisfaction of the department? We do not vouch for the issues raised by the department nor advocate for making payments without ascertaining the basic details but fail to understand that only within a year, all the details provided by the pensioners should not match with the official ones. We have reports that instances are that pensions were received regularly for the last 20 to 25 years without any problem but just since March last year, these would be stopped, is beyond comprehension.
Why should there be no coordination between district offices and the main Directorate as the alibi is put forth by the department and whose baby is it to set that right? Why should the innocent pensioners suffer on that count? In this era , people – the citizens, the applicants , the eligible persons under various schemes etc have more expectations from the system, the administration and the Government which calls for making departures from the conventional methods. In other words, why should a team of three to four officials from the department not be made ‘mobile’ and assigned the duty to visit these pensioners, their banks etc to collect and correct basic details instead of asking the ones to do it who otherwise want lesser physical trouble and botheration in their left out days of ‘splendid’ dimness ? We hope the held off , hesitated , put off and virtually closed pension cases for the last one year numbering 3000 shall be processed, particulars and details updated and pension amount for all pending months released in their favour at an early date.
Follow our WhatsApp channel