Pension remarks meant to show govt's delay in payment, arrears: Venugopal

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal on Wednesday clarified that his remarks about welfare pension disbursement by the Kerala government were aimed at showing how much delayed it was and that arrears were partially cleared usually close to elections.

Venugopal, the MP from Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency, said his remarks were "deliberately misinterpreted" by the CPI(M) to "mislead" the people.

"I did not say anything against the beneficiaries who deserve to get the pension on time. I only intended to point out the state government's priority with regard to its payment.

"Last year, two out of seven months arrears were paid just before the Lok Sabha polls. This year, one month's arrears is being paid just before the by-poll," he told reporters.

He alleged that while the government has enough funds to take care of "PR work" for itself and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, it is unable to pay pension arrears on time or increase the honorarium of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers.

Venugopal's clarification came a day after the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala slammed him over his alleged remarks that the welfare pension given by the government was an 'election bribe'.

The Left party had termed his alleged remarks as baseless" and claimed that it was intended to mislead the public.

It also said that the Left government has been paying Rs 1,600 as welfare pension to around 62 lakh beneficiaries since it came to power in 2016.

On Wednesday, while speaking to reporters, Venugopal claimed that the amount of Rs 1,600 being given by the government was done by combining several other pensions in the name of pension revision.

He also claimed that there were huge arrears in funds to be given to the various workers' welfare boards in the state.

The Congress leader said his intention was to point to the huge arrears of pension and how they are partially cleared close to the polls, but he never meant that the beneficiaries are not eligible for it.

"The beneficiaries are eligible for it. They should get it. They need to get it on time," he added.

Besides Govindan, state ministers K N Balagopal and V Sivankutty too had criticised Venugopal over his alleged remarks and they had demanded that he and his party apologise for it.

Venugopal's alleged remarks came during a speech as part of the ongoing by-poll campaign in Nilambur.