Doda: Even as a large number of ineligible persons, including government servants, are reaping the benefits of social security schemes, an eight-year-old specially abled girl in Doda district is deprived of the access to these government programmes.
The parents of Sonali Raj, who has 80 per cent disability, have been running from pillar to post for the last two years for the approval of her pension case.
Arpan, Sonali’s father and a resident of Sindra village of Bhalla in Doda, said, “I applied for her disability pension in 2016 in the social welfare department, Bhaderwah, but owing to government apathy, her case has not been approved.”
“Sonali is physically and mentally challenged. She cannot walk even a step without our help. We have spent a huge amount of money on her treatment, but in vain,” her father said.
“I have visited the Bhaderwah social welfare office many times in two years, but not even once I got a satisfactory reply. We are poor. We urge the authorities to kindly approve her case,” Kunta Devi, her grandmother said.
Under the Integrated Social Security Scheme and the National Social Assistance Programme, more than 5,500 pension case files in Doda are awaiting approval. More than 25,000 people are getting benefits of these social schemes.
At the recent tehsil-level verification conducted by Simrandeep Singh, deputy commissioner, Doda, 1,930 persons were found to be completely ineligible for the benefits under these social security schemes. Among them, 23 were government employees. (tribune)
