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Rajasthan pensioners declared dead, come to Delhi with appeal -Naveed Iqbal
-The Indian Express

Given their advanced age, navigating different government offices is a struggle for most.

Having sat on protest outside Shahid Smarak in Jaipur for 22 days in June along with hundreds of others and trying to prove to the Rajasthan government that they are alive, Hanja Devi, 83, arrived in the national capital on Friday. Her demand remains the same — that the state government listen to them and revive their pension.

Both Hanja Devi and her husband have been struck off the rolls of Rajasthan’s social security pension. The couple stands marked dead, along with 2.95 lakh other pensioners from different parts of Rajasthan.

As per information provided to Nikhil Dey of the Soochna Rozgar Abhiyan, nearly 10 lakh pensions have been stopped by the state government and at least 7 lakh cancelled. “This information has not been made public and people who depend on these pensions — the elderly, widows and physically challenged people — have been marked dead,” Dey said.

One such person, Lalu Ram, claimed that no one came to check his whereabouts before it was discontinued. For the last six months, he claimed, the post office from where he collected his pension is telling him that their pension has been stopped.

In an order passed on February 17, the Rajasthan Social Justice and Empowerment Department had said that a pensioner can file a review petition with the official concerned within 90 days if he/she is dissatisfied with cancellation of pension. But unaware of the notification, many pensioners like Hanja Devi have been doing the rounds of the Panchayat office and banks, where pension money now arrives after the launch of Jan Dhan Yojana.

They are now seeking pension as fresh applicants. “They have been going from one office to another with a letter from the sarpanch, which states that they are alive and that their pensions should be started again,” Dey said.

But given their advanced age, navigating different government offices is a struggle for most.

In data provided by the government, after the 22-day protest in the state, a category called “other” has been created — it lists more than 23,000 pensioners. But Dey said the government has “no idea” what this “other” category entails. “I have asked officials, and they cannot tell us anything about this arbitrary category,” he claimed.

According to Dey, officials who marked the villagers dead did not even check with the local sarpanch to authenticate their lists. The Social Justice and Empowerment department, Dey said, claims that these 10 lakh people were “not eligible” to receive pension and that they “had made it to the list by mistake”.

The villagers want the lists and information on pension to be made public.