Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has accused the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government of prioritising mega events spending crores of rupees of public money while ignoring the travails of the struggling social welfare pensioners.
Speaking to press persons here on January 29 (Monday) after the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) staged a walkout from the Assembly, Mr. Satheesan alleged that the government has not paid welfare pensions to senior citizens, widows, agricultural labourers and the differently abled for the past five months.
Earlier in the day, the Opposition had moved an adjournment motion for a debate on the death by suicide of a needy person in Kozhikode allegedly due to non-payment of social welfare pension dues.
“More than 50 lakh persons draw welfare pensions in the State. Many of them are struggling now without money to buy food or medicines. The State Government has not taken any step to pay them the dues for the past five months. Their issues are not the priority of the government, which focuses more on lavish events. They are still speaking about Keraleeyam and Navakerala Sadas. The government is shying away from its primary responsibility of providing pensions to the suffering people. This will lead to more serious issues and even suicides,” said Mr. Satheesan.
‘False narrative’
He alleged that the LDF had been spreading a false narrative that welfare pensions were not provided for 18 months during the tenure of the Oommen Chandy government. On the contrary, pensions could not be disbursed only for three months during the 2014-15 period due to technical issues that cropped up during a shift to the direct benefit transfer (DBT) mechanism.
Mr. Satheesan also accused Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal of attempting to mislead the public by claiming that the person who committed suicide had collected his pension in December.
The pension provided in December was the pending amount for the month of August, after which no pension had been disbursed, he said.
