The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday issued notices to Punjab and its Director,Social Security,on the state Cabinets decision to re-start the old age pension and widow pension to about 1 lakh ineligible beneficiaries. The petitioner,Dr Sandeep Gupta of Talwandi Sabo,has contended in a public interest litigation (PIL) that according to information received by him under the RTI Act,as many as 29,991 persons were found to be ineligible (for getting old age and widows pension) in the four districts of Kapurthala,Ferozepur,Ludhiana and Gurdaspur. Contending on behalf of the petitioner,Advocate H C Arora submitted that according to newspaper reports,approximately 1 lakh persons were found ineligible for these pensions during a scrutiny conducted by the State Government. The petitioner has demanded that the state government be directed to recover the pensions paid to all those ineligible beneficiaries and also to file criminal cases against the concerned persons,including sarpanches and doctors who helped in preparing fake documents for these ineligible beneficiaries.
