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Political slugfest over distribution of social security pension in Andhra
The state government made arrangements for disbursement of pensions at the village/ward secretariats from Wednesday
A political slugfest has erupted over the distribution of social security pensions to the beneficiaries in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday with the ruling YSR Congress party and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) trading charges at each other.
Following a circular issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) barring village and ward volunteers from distributing pensions to senior citizens and other eligible pensioners at their doorsteps, the state government made arrangements for disbursement of pensions at the village/ward secretariats from Wednesday.
Chief secretary KS Jawahar Reddy, who held a teleconference with all the district collectors, directed that arrangements should be made for disbursal of pensions to the very old, differently abled, infirm and the bed-ridden, sick and wheel-chair bound pensioners and elderly widows at their doorsteps.
However, there have been reports of chaos at the village and ward secretariats in several districts with hundreds of pensioners queuing up there to collect pensioners, only to be turned down by the secretariat staff saying they were yet to draw money from the banks.
Adding to this, there were visuals in the television channels showing YSR Congress party workers carrying old and sick pensioners on cots and wheel-chairs to the village/ward secretariats for receiving pensions, blaming the TDP leaders for the plight of the pensioners.
Finally, the pension distribution started after 4 pm. The state government announced that the disbursement of pensions would be done till Saturday.
YSRCP president and chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy lashed out at TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu for creating all the hardship to the pensioners. “He was the man behind former IAS officer Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar to petition the EC and get the door-delivery of pensions by volunteers stopped,” he alleged.
“Seeing the elderly suffer today, unable to even walk to collect their pensions, I can’t help but wonder if Naidu possesses any humanity or if he’s simply a sadist,” Jagan said, while speaking at a meeting at Puthalapattu in Chittoor district.
The TDP president lashed out Jagan for playing a new drama over distribution of pensions of the poor, elderly and disabled.
“I never opposed the volunteer system. I’m against volunteers doing politics. By provoking the volunteers, the YSRCP is making the volunteers resign and trying to make them their party workers,” Naidu said, addressing a meeting at Kothapet in Konaseema district on Wednesday.
He said the EC had made it clear that the government employees should distribute the pensions, not the volunteers, who are not full-time employees. There are 126,000 staff in the village and ward secretariats.
“Every village has 45 pension holders on average. If 20 pensions are given in a day, the entire pension distribution process will be completed in two days by going door-to-door,” the TDP chief pointed out.
He suspected a conspiracy by the ruling YSRCP behind not distributing the old-age pension for them at their doorsteps. He alleged that the pension to be distributed to the old people was being paid by Jagan to his own contractors.
“And now, he has been resorting to mispropaganda that the TDP is creating hurdles for pension distribution,” he said.
