UDHAMPUR: A large number of people including handicapped, widows and old aged hailing from Majalta tehsil of Udhampur held a massive protest in front of District Social Welfare Office in favour of their issues regarding delay in pension disbursement and related matters.
The people showed extreme resentment against the department for not disposing off several pension cases which are lying pending since 2009 and demanded early release of these cases.
The other issues raised by the people included payment of pensions to already sanctioned cases, pension disbursement on monthly basis instead of paying arears after a gap of 5 to 6 months that too in installments, release of recently enhanced amount of pensions which has still not been implemented, submission of pension application forms without Adhar cards as due to some technical fault the concerned authorities couldn’t prepare this document of most of these needy people, enhancement of unemployment allowance to matriculates and above to Rs. 3000 and to Graduates Rs. 5000, strict implementation of reservation in employment for handicapped etc.
The prominent who participated in the protest included Chairperson Destitute And Handicapped Welfare Association (DAHWA), Surat Singh, social activists Balram Singh, Om Parkash, PC Basotra, Bharat Bhushan, Hajra Begum, Makhni Devi, Jatti Devi and others.
Later, Deputy Commissioner, Niraj Kumar, interacted with the people and issued necessary instructions to the concerned to look into all the issues raised by the people for an early redressal. The people expressed gratitude to the DC for listening to their issues and hoped that he will intervene for an early redressal to their issues.