Pensioners send Rs 7 to PM relief fund in novel protest

Aiming to draw attention to their low pensions, a group of poor and elderly pensioners resorted to a novel protest by sending a day’s pension of Rs 7 to PM’s relief fund.

The PMO, however, accepted the remittance and sent them a thanks letter, ignoring their petition to increase the pension from Rs 200 to half of the minimum wages.

Unfazed, the pensioners decided to repeat their protest by despatching a day’s pension to the PMO once again.

“The Pension Parishad received a patronizing and disgraceful response to this protest “thanking” the poor and elderly for their “generous contribution” to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. The government either wilfully or through its own lack of perspicacity did not respond to the clear protest marked by the poor sending them a day’s pension,” said the Pension Parishad led by Aruna Roy and Baba Adhav.

The pension of Rs 200 a month for elderly people below poverty line between ages 60 and 69 and Rs 300 for those between 70 and 79, under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, has not been revised since 2007.  “In the mean time, the Seventh Pay Commission was passed and the daily allowance for a Member of Parliament continues to be Rs 2000. The elderly poor and marginalised remain ignored, neglected, and forgotten by a state to which they have contributed their lives and labour,” said the Pension Parishad.