Punjab CM Orders Immediate Release, Regularisation Of Pending Old Age Persons
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has ordered the immediate release of pending old age pensions, with strict instructions to regularise payment to the beneficiaries. The Chief Minister issued the directives during a meeting to review various schemes of the Department of Social Security and Women & Child Development here on Tuesday. Expressing concern over the non-payment of old age pension in many places since April 2017, Captain Amarinder expressed the hope that the process of payment would be regularised by March, with directions to make December payment by January 31. Captain Amarinder ordered to get latest specifications including color for the free bicycles being distributed to girls, with no photograph of the Chief Minister, in contrast to the existing practice of having the CM’s picture on these specially colored blue and saffron bicycles. The issue of vacant Group A, B, C and D posts for the disabled in all government departments was also discussed, and the Chief Minister was apprised that 287 of the 899 vacancies had so far been filled by the Department. Captain Amarinder has ordered the remaining vacancies to be filled by April 30. The campaign is aimed at achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities in Built environment, Transportation system and Information and communication system. Under Built environment accessibility, the city of Ludhiana has been selected, and 46 government public buildings have been identified to be made accessible to disabled persons. To implement the RPWD (Rights of Persons with Disability) Act, 2016, in letter and spirit, and to extend all benefits as per the provisions of this Act to all deserving/needy disabled persons, this Department has proposed to set up an independent department of disability, at an annual expenditure of Rs. 3.5 crores. The case has been sent to the Finance Department. The Chief Minister was also updated on the work for the creation of various sports facilities, such as running tracks, cricket pitch, gymnasium etc, at the Blind School in Jamalpur, for which Rs 42 lakh has already been transferred. With regard to the UDID (Unique Disability ID) project initiated by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, the meeting was informed that a state level admin and district level admin had been created, including the Departments of Health, Revenue, and Social Security. For Bachpan Bachao Andolan, the Department is coordinating with NGO, Bachpan Bachao Andolan Foundation of Noble Award winner Kailash Satayarthi, for making Punjab a model State for Children. As part of the 100% centrally sponsored One-Stop Centre scheme, in the first phase, six centers have been set up in Punjab (Bathinda, Jalandhar, Muktsar, Patiala, SBS Nagar and Gurdaspur). In the second phase, eight new One Stop Centres have been sanctioned by GOI (Ferozpur, Fazilka, Sangrur, SAS Nagar, Roopnagar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, and Amritsar), while the remaining will be covered in the next financial year 2018-19.
