Cong seeks return of Sheila's schemes

Party may gherao Secretariat over demand

Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely met Delhi Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar Srivastava on Monday to register his protest against shutting down of schemes launched by former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. 

Irked over media reports on shutting down of Annashree Yojana, 181 helpline, widow and old age pension and other schemes, the delegation of Congress leaders threatened to stage a protest if the schemes are not reinstated.

Party’s South Delhi MP Ramesh Kumar, MLAs Devender Yadav, Asif Mohammad Khan, Haroon Yusuf, ex- MLAs Kiran Walia and Mukesh Sharma and other dignitaries were part of the delegation.

During the meeting, which lasted for an hour, Yusuf and Lovely requested the Chief Secretary to not to stop any of the schemes.

“Delhiites are facing difficulties and problems as there is no elected government. Over 30,000 people are waiting for their old age pension. For the first time in Delhi, the widow pension has also been stopped. The Women in Distress Helpline 181 has also been stopped and the employees of the helpline have not been paid,” Yusuf said.

He also requested the Chief Secretary to set a time frame to implement of Dilli Annashree Yojana – a direct cash transfer subsidy scheme.

“We have also pointed out slow implementation of Dilli Annashree Yojana. There are 17 lakh applications pending for the scheme. We sought an earliest implementation of the scheme by fixing a time frame,” he said.

Lovely accused the outgoing Aam Aadmi Party government of spreading anarchy and halting the progressive schemes of the Congress government.

“In their 49-day rule, the AAP government only halted the people friendly decisions of former Congress government. We have requested the Chief Secretary to follow the old guidelines,” he said.

He said the party is not satisfied with the slow pace of implementation of social sectors schemes. The old age pension scheme is not being implemented properly and the elderly persons face difficulties in getting their pensions, he said.

The party warned the Chief Secretary of a gherao of the Secretariat if the old schemes were not reinstated.