Old Age Pension scheme: HC seeks Delhi govt respone on plea

The Delhi High Court today sought the Delhi government's response on a plea alleging that over 1.5 lakh old aged destitute have not been paid pension of Rs 1000 per month by the municipal bodies here.
A bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva issued notice to the city government directing it to file reply within two weeks.
The notice was issued after NGO Social Jurist moved an application seeking to implead Delhi government as party in the matter saying North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) due to financial crunch has decided to discontinue an old-age pension scheme since July last year.

Advocate Ashok Agarwal, appearing for the NGO, contended that in the circumstance, the only option was that Delhi government should take upon the liability to pay the pension to these 1.5 lakh old aged destitute of the city.
The court listed the matter for October 7.
NDMC had said that they have written to Delhi government to consider merging the Old Age Pension scheme with a similar one run by its Social Welfare Department.

The NGO had claimed the municipal bodies had stopped paying the pension under the old-age/widow/disabled persons pension and stipend scheme.
South Delhi Municipal Corporation, however, had informed the court that over 73,000 people were eligible to receive the benefit under its Old Age Pension scheme, but it had paid the amount to only 63,914 till September 30, 2014, and the rest would be paid as soon as they provided details of Electronic Clearance Service or real-time gross settlement systems.

On whether it intended to continue the scheme, South DMC had said the matter has been placed before the standing committee of the corporation for taking a policy decision.
Earlier, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) had told the court it has decided to continue its pension scheme covering over 30,600 disabled, widowed and elderly persons, subject to availability of funds.
It had also told the court that pension funds to the tune of Rs 107.52 crore has not been paid for the last 24 months due to lack of funds.