Chandigarh, August 10
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has opposed the recent decision of the state government to distribute monthly pension cheques to the elderly, widows, disabled and destitute beneficiaries under welfare schemes. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Tuesday, senior AAP leader and MLA Aman Arora said the decision of the Punjab government to distribute pensions through cheques would harass the elderly, the disabled, widows and destitute beneficiaries. “Elderly or disabled people who are still unable to walk well will have to go to government offices and panches-sarpanches to get the cheques and then have to struggle in long queues of the banks to get them cashed,” he said.
Arora said such experiments had been failing miserably in the past, so the government 1should immediately reverse its decision to distribute pensions by cheques, as imposing such fatal decisions on the elderly, the disabled and widows does not befit any government. He said such decisions in an election year were directly politically motivated and the ruling Congress was issuing such dictatorial decrees through its panches-sarpanches and councilors to put pressure on the dependent class.
The AAP leader said the previous SAD-BJP government had also been playing such political maneuvers at the expense of the elderly, disabled and widows. Arora said the Congress government, which had not paid Rs 2,500 per month as promised, in four-and-a-half years, had no right to harass the pension beneficiaries. He said the government should transfer money through government and its co-operative banks and release funds for welfare schemes.
