The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) was rapped today by Delhi High Court which termed as "complete eyewash" the civic body's scheme to provide pension to disabled, widowed and aged persons.
"This (scheme) is a complete eyewash. It is absurd. You are not giving anything to anyone," a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said, observing that the East Delhi MCD did not appear to be giving any pension to any of the nearly 45,000 people who were being paid the same till 2013.
The court asked the corporation to provide a list of the persons eligible for the stipend, the manner of their selection and details regarding who were actually receiving the pension and when did they stop getting it.
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It also issued notice to the EDMC as well as the municipal corporations of North and South Delhi seeking their replies by March 11, the next date of hearing.
EDMC was also directed to "clearly set out the number of persons entitled to receive the stipend under the old-age/ widow/disabled persons pension and stipend scheme (of 2008)."
During the proceedings, EDMC submitted before the bench that it had been paying the pension till April 2013 after which it could not continue as it did not have the funds.
The civic body also said it has applied to the government for sanction of around Rs 500 crore for the scheme.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by NGO Social Jurist through advocate Ashok Agarwal claiming that the municipal body had stopped paying this pension without giving any reason.
The petition termed the denial of pension to the old and the disabled as a violation of fundamental rights.
"The action on the part of the corporations is arbitrary, illegal, unjustified and also in utter violation of the fundamental Right to Life of the affected persons," it said.
"The destitute, whose only means of survival was the said stipend/pension, have been left in a lurch by the abrupt and arbitrary stoppage of stipend/pension. Their monthly budgets have been hit hard and many of them have been drawn to the brink of starvation," the PIL said.
