No respite for the old and feeble even on elders’ day

COIMBATORE: M Iruthaiyaraj, 82, has visited the collectorate thrice from Pillayar Kovil near Sundarapuram seeking old age pension. Without it, he says he won’t be able to survive as his sons can’t afford his care and he has problems with his eyesight. “I live on the little that my son, who doesn’t earn much, provides. If I manage to get old age pension, me and wife need not beg for survival,” he says.
Like Iruthaiyaraj, there were over a hundred senior citizens who had come with petitions demanding old age pensions to meet district collector M Karunagaran on Monday, which happened to be the World Geriatrics Day. Most of them had unpleasant life stories to narrate.
R Maruthachalam, who is 85, has visited the collectorate five times so far to plead for pension. “This time I hope to get my pension,” he told this reporter. He finds the visits a drain on his meagre resources since even the bus fare is beyond his means. Many who were at the collectorate on Monday said they had none for support.
However, an official at the collectorate claimed that they process all applications within two weeks. Those above 60 years with names in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list and who have no one to take care of them, can apply for pension. If someone’s application has been rejected that’s because (s)he doesn’t fulfil the criteria, he claimed.
But people like Maruthachalam say they have been frequenting the place with the request as officials have promised to look into their applications. M Kandhasamy, a partially blind 65-year-old, said he has been several times to the collectorate but with little effect.
Officials defend themselves by showing the number of applications they have processed recently. “Around 2,657 applications have been processed in August,” says the official. A total of around 62,875 pensions are dispersed every month. This comes under three heads. They are the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension, Indira Gandhi Differently-abled Pension Scheme and the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Schemes. The pension amount is around Rs 1,000 a month.