A delegation of elderly people from the Pension Parishad led by rights activist Aruna Roy met Rahul Gandhi to apprise him of their long standing demands of revamp in old age, widow and disabled pension scheme.
During the two-round interaction with the Congress vice president, the elderly told him that they have been sitting on a dharna at Jantar Mantar for the last two weeks and were patiently waiting for the government to act on the commitments they had made to revamp the old age widows and disability pension, a statement released by Pension Parishad said.
"We are extremely disappointed that the government has gone back and the assurances of the Minister of the Rural Development gave all of us loud and clear at Parliament Street way back in March 2013," said Rambhav Shinde from Maharashtra.
Another delegate, Janaki Devi from Bhopal, "We got this assurance after coming four times to Delhi since May 2012 and over 7 months have gone by and we have returned twice after that and still nothing has happened."
Emphasising the demand, Aruna Roy said, "The gulf between the aam aadmi and the government is only going to widen if assurances made on public platforms and in writing are not fulfilled."
Rahul Gandhi listened to the woes of the elderly, expressed support and promised them he will go back to the government and pursue the matter, the statement said.
