43,000 dead people were getting Samajwadi Pension, says UP govt

LUCKNOW: The state government on Friday informed the UP Assembly that more 4 lakh ineligible persons were being given Samajwadi Pension in the previous Akhilesh Yadav regime.

The revelation was made during the question hour after SP legislator Narendra Verma sought to know from the state government whether the pension scheme had been scrapped by the ruling BJP.

Responding to the query, social welfare minister Ramapati Shastri said that the state government withheld the scheme after it found grave anomalies in its implementation during the previous SP regime. The department submitted before the house that of the total over 50 lakh beneficiaries, more than 4 lakh were found to be ineligible, while over 43,000 who were given pension were actually dead.

The Samajwadi Pension scheme was one of the key poll promise of the SP when it stormed to power in UP in 2012 assembly elections. Under the scheme every poor household with no source of income was to be given a monthly pension of Rs 500. It was to be increased by Rs 50 every year with an upper limit of Rs 750 per month. The then SP government roped in cine star Vidya Balan to promote the scheme.

According to government records, of the total 50 lakh beneficiaries, 22 lakh belonged to the OBC category, while over 10 lakh were Muslims. Around 15 lakh Dalits and around 4 lakh upper caste also benefited from the scheme. However, when BJP came to power in 2017 it ordered a probe into the scheme, citing grave anomalies in selection of beneficiaries.

Shastri said that the anomalies have been found in the surveyed 62 districts. He said that the state government was in the process of verifying the beneficiaries in the remaining 13 districts.

The SP leaders, however, demanded the state government to resume implementation of the scheme for the rest 45 lakh beneficiaries who’ve been found to be eligible.

To this, parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna said that the implementation of the scheme couldn’t be resumed until it is fully scrutinized. The SP members, however, got agitated and staged a walkout.