CM shock treatments turning fatal to aged people
13 aged pensioners died due to shock and agony
Both pensions of aged couples being removed
AMARAVATI: TDP National General Secretary and MLC Nara Lokesh on Monday strongly criticised Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for ‘going on’ reducing the social security pensions to the poor beneficiaries in violation of his Padayatra promise to go on increasing pensions if he was elected to power.
Mr. Lokesh said the Chief Minister had changed his word and broke his promise on the Rs. 3,000 pensions to the old aged people. He also promised to give pensions to 65 lakh people in the State but now started cutting down the number of even existing pensions by giving lame excuses. With his broken promises and outright betrayals, the Chief Minister had done historic injustice to the deprived sections of people.
In a statement here, Mr. Nara Lokesh strongly objected to the manner in which Mr. Jagan Reddy had cut over 2.30 lakh pensions to ‘avva tatalu’ (grandmas and grandpas). Unable to bear the mental torture, over 13 ‘avva tatalu’ had so far lost their lives ever since their pensions were cancelled. They could not survive the mental anguish and depression caused by the loss of pensions which were their only source of monthly income for living and medical expenses.
Mr. Lokesh demanded that CM Jagan Reddy should explain to the aged people why he had not fulfilled his promise to increase pension amount to Rs. 2,750 on completion of two years of his rule. He promised to increase pension by Rs. 250 every year till the total reached Rs. 3,000 in his five years term. The general public and the elderly persons had lost total confidence in the leadership of this Chief Minister.
Decrying the CM’s indifference, Mr. Nara Lokesh deplored that the YSRCP Government was stealing Rs. 500 per month from ‘avva tatalu’ on the one hand and cutting down the number of pensions on a large scale. The Chief Minister would face serious consequences for causing severe agony to the aged people who were in their twilight days. It was not correct to cancel pensions of those who went to other places for work opportunities and medical treatments. All the cancelled pensions should be restored immediately.
Mr. Nara Lokesh shared reports of how the ulterior plans of the Jagan regime had caused anguish and depression that led to the death of many elderly persons. A 70-year-old person became upset when the local volunteer told him about the stoppage of his pension. Gurraiah fell ill and eventually died within a few days at Pulukunta village in Galiveedu mandal of Kadapa district. The village sarpanch said Gurraiah solely depended on his pension for his livelihood as his insane son had left him a few years ago.
Mr. Lokesh also referred to how cancellation of pension caused the death of one Khillo Somanna at Tamarapalli village in Chintapalli mandal of Visakhapatnam district. Somanna’s only mistake was that he did not get eKYC verification carried out for his pension benefit. He could not get a pension this month, went into depression and eventually collapsed. At Pudicherla village, Syed Shah Ali Bhasha died due to heart attack after his pension was cancelled. He got a pension till August. The officials told him that his age was underreported in his Aadhaar details.
Mr. Nara Lokesh termed it as objectionable that an aged couple were deprived of both their pensions though they were of different categories. T.V. Chalapati Rao, a harmonium artist, was getting artist pension at Ghantasala village in Krishna district. His wife was getting a weaver pension. The Government brought in a rule that two pensions should be given in the same family. But in this case, both the pensions were removed. The couple were dependent on their pensions to meet the Rs. 6,000 costs on their monthly medicines and house expenses.
