Those registered on portal too not getting benefit
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, June 17: Lakhs of people belonging to weaker sections such as old age persons, widows/divorcees, women in distress, transgenders and persons with disabilities (PwDs) are struggling for their survival and are on roads against the J&K Government which has failed to release Rs 1000 pension in their favour since February this year.
For years together, Rs 1000 in the name of financial assistance was being provided to these people by the Social Welfare Department of Jammu and Kashmir under its Integrated Social Security Scheme but for last around three months, these people are without pension despite applying fresh on SUGAM portal as directed by the Union Territory Government.
According to the reports, in September last year the Government came up with new rules and asked all the beneficiaries to apply fresh on SUGAM portal to get the benefit of the scheme. Then, many including social activists, political leadership and beneficiaries expressed their dismay over the Government directive which forced these people in distress to rush from one Government office to another to get requisite documents such as Domicile Certificate, Age Certificate, Aadhaar and Disability Certificate to register themselves on SUGAM portal to avail the social welfare pension scheme.
Drawing flak from every section of the society for this directive, the Department of Social Welfare Department in the month of April this year, released pension for the past three months in favour of some of the beneficiaries (whose bank accounts were seeded with Aadhaar) and since then, all types of beneficiaries, even those who have applied fresh on SUGAM portal, are without pension.
Talking to Excelsior, Sushil Sharma, chairman of All J&K Welfare Trust, who himself is physically challenged said, “The present UT administration has no mercy for handicapped persons. First, they asked us to make UIDAI cards to avail pension scheme and when we made these cards after a lot of struggle then they asked us to apply on SUGAM portal to get benefit of the pension scheme.”
He said the present J&K administration is leaving no effort to harass the handicapped people. “For years we were demanding enhancement of the disability pension from Rs 1000 to Rs 3000 but instead of enhancing this meager financial assistance they have stopped it too.” Sharma claimed and said that even those who have successfully registered themselves on SUGAM portal months back are deprived of the pension for last three months.
Meanwhile, an officer in the Directorate of Social Welfare Jammu on conditions of anonymity told Excelsior that around one lakh people of Jammu district including PwDs, Old age persons, widows etc were availing benefit of pension scheme of the Social Welfare Department before September-October last year and after the directive of online registration, only 43000 people have applied on SUGAM portal. He said similarly, around 40 thousand people have applied on SUGAM portal in Kathua district and approximately 2200 of them have received sanction letters but they are yet to get pension in their bank accounts.
He admitted that pension of Rs 1000 has not been released even in favour of those who have applied not only on SUGAM portal but also their cases have been cleared by the Directorate. “There are few issues in the new system and we are working on it and within few days, all those who have successfully registered themselves on SUGAM portal and whose cases have been approved, will start getting pension in their bank accounts,” the officer said, adding even backlog will be cleared.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
