Himachal Pradesh Social Justice and empowerment Minister Col. Dhani Ram Shandil informed the Assembly that the State would disburse the social security pensions to all the eligible ‘online soon’ as it was disbursing various welfare pensions to about 3,89.168 people in the State. Replying to the volley of queries on the issues Mr.Shandil said that as many as 24579 applications are pending with the Department till Feb 15, 2017 are under consideration to allow pensions.
The State was disbursing monthly pensions to the eligible beneficiary after gap of three or six months, he added that it was releasing pensions to the tribal, remote and forward areas on half yearly basis. The Minister said that it is not possible to disburse the pensions to all the eligible on the monthly basis so Department was releasing int after the gap of three or six months. He claimed that efforts have been made to link the bank account of beneficiary with Adhaar cards so that monthly pensions could be disbursed to people directly in their accounts.
Minister said that a Una based private agencies had been roped up by the Department to pay the pension online in the accounts however the agencies remained failed to meet out the condition set by the Department. Mr Shandil said that the State had disbursed Rs 268 Cr were spent from State kitty and rest was bear by the Centre. He said that the State was funding about 92332 Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme , 149121 old age, 21516 to Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension, beside this 77678 people were getting Widow pensions, 1851 Indra Gandhi Disability Pension and 46188 Disability Allowance.
Members alleged that many cases were pending in their assembly segments for long time and beneficiaries are not getting the pensions after gap of five and six months. Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal wanted to know that what share the State was receiving from Center or it was being received on the monthly basis or not. Mr Dhumal also questioned the Minister that why it is not able to disbursed the pension on monthly basis when Centre was funding them adequately.
Minister informed that under the Indra Gandhi National Old Age Pension center share Rs 200 and state Rs 450 per beneficiary, under 80 yrs Old Age pension scheme Rs 500 and Rs 700, under Indra Gandhi National Widow pension Rs 300 and Rs 350, under Indra Gandhi Disability pensions Rs 300 and Rs 900 respectively. Minister said that state was receiving central share on yearly basis on the demand of the State. Earlier BJP members Jai Ram Thakur, Mehswar Singh, Randhir Sharma, Krishan Lal Thakur and Vikram Singh alleged that state was discriminating the people belonged to their respective assembly segment to release of pensions and back log of pensions.
