Ramnagar Constituency suffers all-round neglect;Benefits of social welfare schemes not reaching the poor, destitute: Harsh

 STATE TIMES NEWS
RAMNAGAR: Flaying the government for collapse of various social welfare schemes in Ramnagar Constituency, Harsh Dev Singh, Chairman, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) expressed grave concern over the deprivation of thousands of eligible persons under various welfare measures envisaged for the poor and destitute people under various State and GoI programmes. He regretted that thousands of widows, physically challenged, old aged persons besides orphans were deprived of even their negligible pensions of Rs. 200 per month for the last several months thus adding to their miseries.
He deplored that despite repeated announcements of the government to enhance all such pensions to a minimum of Rs. 1,000 per month and the categorical orders of the J and K High Court for enhanced pensions, no action had been taken by the government thus making a mockery of the ‘welfare state’ slogan so loudly trumpeted by it.
He was addressing a rally followed by protest demonstration in Ramnagar town.
Addressing the gathering, Harsh said that more than 18,000 poor adult girls were identified in Ramnagar Constituency during 2012-13- for coverage under ‘Special Marriage Assistance Scheme’ which envisaged payment of Rs. 25,000 in cash and cost of 5 gms of gold in the event of marriage of such poor girls.
He however regretted that not a single case was provided assistance under the scheme during the last two years from 2014 onwards due to callous approach of the concerned authorities.
Likewise, he said that Ramnagar Constituency was ignored in ‘Ladli Beti Scheme’ also which provided for payment of Rs. 1,000 per month into the account of every new born female child.
He said that aforesaid scheme ought to have been aggressively launched on priority in rural belts of the State particularly constituencies like Ramnagar.
He further decried the deprivation of Ramnagar Constituency under ‘Indira Gandhi Matritia Sahyog Yojana’ under which one time grant of Rs. 6,000 was paid to every household on a birth of a child. He said not a single family had been paid compensation as envisaged under ‘Aam Admi Bima Yojana’ which provided for payment of Rs. 70,000 in case of death of bread earner belonging to labour class including artisans carpenters, masons etc.
Announcing to launch a Statewide agitation for enhancement of pension of the poor and destitute, Singh said that the High Court orders of minimum pension of Rs. 1,000 per month for all categories was required to be implemented retrospectively in letter and spirit from 1st April.
He further flayed the government for roll back of its earlier decision of 2015 of enhancing the compensation under ‘National Family Benefits Scheme’. He said that during last year’s budget session the Finance Minister announced to enhance the compensation under NFBS from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 40,000 but later not only withdrew the order but has also failed to release funds of Rs. 10,000 per case after the year 2014 as envisaged under the earlier scheme. He decried the non payment of SC, ST post Matric scholarships to the eligible students after 2014.
Harsh further flayed the BJP leadership for ignoring Ramnagar town under ‘Housing for All’ Scheme.
He said that Ramnagar town had been ignored under the ‘HFL’ Scheme in which 25 towns of the State had been approved wherein govt. was to provide free housing facilities to all houseless poor people living in the said towns. He further deplored the abandonment of construction work on Ramnagar satellite University Campus after 2014 besides acute problems of water, power and ration scarcity in various villages. He assured the people to agitate the all round neglect and differential treatment doled out to Ramnagar in various other developmental sectors with no voice being raised by the MLA in the Assembly who won by a fluke in Modi wave.
He demanded a high level probe by a Commission of Enquiry into the swindling of subsides and incentives of Horticulture and Agriculture Department by corrupt politicians in league with officers of the said departments.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Shiv Ram Sharma, Des Raj, Gian Chand, Pushpinder, Mohd Farooq, Akash Kharka, Uttam Singh, Mohit Mankotia, Pavan Dev Singh, Kalidas Sharma, Sagar Dev Singh, Dhyan Chand and Subhash Singh Barnal.