Pensions restored for elderly in city: Atishi

New Delhi, Aug 23 (PTI) Delhi Finance Minister Atishi said Friday the pensions of the city’s nearly one lakh elderly people stalled for five months have been restored again, and accused the BJP-led Centre of holding it up by not contributing its share.

Delhi BJP leader Vijender Gupta, however, claimed that it was his party that had been raising the issue and the AAP dispensation had to bow down before it.

“The work of preparing pension documents for the elderly has been stopped in Delhi for the last six years. Old age pension was not given to even a single elderly person.

“The pension of one lakh elderly people was also stopped for the last one year. We were continuously fighting for this. BJP’s struggle bore fruit. The Kejriwal government had to bow down and the withheld pension was released,” Gupta said in a post on ‘X’.

Atishi said four lakh elderly people in Delhi get pensions. Of these, the pension of one lakh people is paid for by the Delhi government and the Centre together. These one lakh were not getting their pensions for the last five months.

She said the BJP-led central government had stopped paying its share of the pension of these people.

“These elderly people used to come to me often. They used to go to our different MLAs,” the AAP leader said.

Atishi said whenever she would meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in jail, he would inquire whether the elderly got their pensions.

“I want to congratulate these one lakh elderly people that the pension which was stopped since the month of April has started coming now. From yesterday itself, the social welfare department of Delhi has started crediting this pension into the accounts of the elderly. Till yesterday, about 90,000 pensions have been transferred and the remaining 10,000 pensions will be credited into the bank accounts today,” she added.

The Delhi government gives Rs 2,200 per month per pensioner and the Central government gives Rs 300.

As per the pension rules, the pension cannot be released until the share is received from the central government.