Duli Chand during a protest in Rohtak on Thursday. The placard reads: ‘Your uncle is still alive’.A 102-year-old man Thursday staged a protest in Haryana’s Rohtak, claiming that his pension was stopped in March this year on the ground that he was dead.
Sitting on a decorated chariot, Duli Chand undertook a procession to hand over a memorandum to administrative officers and former minister Manish Grover urging them to restore his old-age pension. He was seen holding a board which read, “Your Phupha is still alive.”
On Wednesday, Chand, accompanied by AAP former state chief Naveen Jaihind appeared before the local media to prove he is not dead and also showed relevant documents. Sources said his pension was not restored despite a formal complaint to the authorities nearly a month back.
Giving a deadline of 24 hours to restore Chand’s pension, Jaihind had warned that a protest would be held if his pension was not restored. Jaihind said: “Duli Chand’s pension was discontinued despite the fact that he has a valid Aadhar card, PAN number and bank statement. He had received his last pension on March 2 but it was discontinued after that.”
An officer of the social welfare department told The Indian Express Chand’s pension was stopped after he was shown dead in his family ID. Requesting anonymity, the officer said: “Not only Duli Chand, but we have also received similar requests from 170 other senior citizens too who have alleged that their pensions have been stopped showing them dead in the documents. There are over 150 cases of similar nature in Hisar too. This has happened during preparing the family IDs. If someone is shown dead in the family ID, then his or her pension is stopped as the pension is linked with the family IDs in Haryana.”
He added: “Once their cases are cleared from the headquarter, their pension will be restored.”