Senior BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla today demanded Punjab government to increase and ensure timely payment of senior citizens' pension saying "was the state so poor that it can't pay the elders?"
"The pension that the senior citizens are receiving in Punjab is less than one-fourth of what neighbouring Haryana pays. Also it is not given regularly," Chawla said in a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Haryana is paying Rs 1,200 per month to every senior citizen while Punjab is merely giving Rs 250 that too not on regular basis, and the beneficiaries have to face hardship to receive it, she said.
She urging the Chief Minister to increase and regularise the pension questioned, "Is the state so poor that it can't give pensions to senior citizens regularly and hike it?"
Giving example of Amritsar district, Chawla said the senior citizens were not receiving pension as it has been stopped on the name of "eligible beneficiaries' inspection" and similar things were happening in rest of the state.
