Congress hits out at BJP-JJP government over social security pension

Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Monday accused the BJP-JJP government in Haryana of withholding the annual increase in social security pension for the elderly, widows and destitute, terming it “gross betrayal”.

Mr. Surjewala alleged that the State government was denying the increase in January, which would badly hit around 28,87,000 elderly and widow pensioners. He said as per the government figures, there are 17.38 lakh elderly ‘samman’ allowance, 7.40 lakh widow and 1.74 lakh disability pensioners.

“We demand that the government should effect an increase of ₹500 without any delay.”

He said the same political parties, who are part of this government, had promised to enhance the pension to ₹5,100 in their election manifesto. But the moment they came to power, they started breaching them. “Now they promise an increase of a mere ₹250 and that too seems to have been put in the cold storage. An annual increase of ₹250 is not acceptable because with this increase the total pension will be only ₹3,250 by the end of the term of the present government, which is much below the amount of pension they had promised in their manifesto,” he said.

Mr. Surjewala said the economic condition of the people has crumbled due to the wrong policies of the BJP government. “During the pandemic, the people are already compelled to live under economic distress, price rise and ever-rising unemployment.”