Ujjain: Collector Sanket Bhondve received an award from the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind for attempting to brighten the lives of thousands of elderly people of the district through various welfare programmes. The award titled ‘Integrated development of Ujjain zila panchayat and Nagada Municipality,’ was given at a ceremony held at Vigyan-Bhawan in New Delhi, on Monday. Minister of social justice and empowerment, Thawarchand Gehlot, zila panchayat president Mahesh Parmar and CEO Sandeep GR, were also present at the ceremony.
As per statistics, pension of Rs 1.35 crore had been distributed to around 39, 498 elderly people of over 60 year age in the district during past one year. Under the ‘vayoshri yojana’ various equipments like cane, wheelchairs, and hearing aid devices were also distributed to 2150 elderly. Many recreation activities were organised in village panchayats for elderly people and under the Chief Minister ‘tirth darshan yojana’, a total of 11, 920 elderly have been sent on pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi, Kashi, Jagannath Puri, Rameshvaram, Tirupati and Dwarka.
Ujjain district has also been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) under ‘swachh Bharat mission’. The administration also provided monetary aid for construction of toilets for 11, 851 families, which had no adult member, and had heads of the families who were over 60 years of age. The administration also achieved 100 per cent registration of the elderly population, and 6558 people are currently getting pension under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme.
