Demonetisation: Pensioners across Haryana hit; official says problem has eased

One of Dalip’s son who is involved in agriculture while another is a daily wage labourer. “I am not in a state to do any work and depend on the pension that I receive. I have not received my pension for two months now. There are long queues at the bank and often we are told that there is no money. Moreover, pensioners are been asked to get Rs 600 change and only then they can avail Rs 2,000 note, that too if it is available. The government should ensure that adequate money is provided to the banks,” he said.

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Haryana provides social security pensions to 22 lakh beneficiaries at a cost of Rs 88 crore to the state exchequer. Pensions are given to senior citizens, widows, handicapped, retired defence personnel among others.

Jagat Singh, sarpanch of Berla village in Bhiwani district said that at the bank branch in the village, around 3,000 pensioners including those from the adjoining villages withdraw their pension. However, in the last two months most of them have been unable to do so. “It has become a problem to manage the rush at the bank. Once in a while the bank gets Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh in cash. We try to ensure that everyone gets some amount of money, at least Rs 2,000. While cash is being seized from several places, here it is in short supply. The elderly pensioners cannot stand in queues for a long time. Most of them are abstaining from coming to the bank,” said Singh.

Around 90 pensioners at Danipur village in Ambala district have also not received their pension in the last two months. “We approached the authorities and informed about the problem. We have been assured that we will receive cash soon. However, the pensioners here are suffering,” said the sarpanch of the village, Krishan Singh.

However, Amit Jha, Principal Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Haryana, said there were some problems initially, but those have been taken care of. He said that there are no separate accounts for pensioners and the money is transferred to accounts of the beneficiaries in their respective banks so there was no way of ascertaining how many beneficiaries have not been able to access their pension.