The Opposition Congress staged a massive demonstration against the Bharatiya Janata Party government here on Friday to protest against stoppage of social security pensions to about 3 lakh beneficiaries after their declaration as “dead persons” in the official records. The State government has since accepted wrong classification of some of them.
A large number of Congress party workers, led by Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot, raised slogans and exhibited banners and placards at the Civil Lines railway crossing before submitting a memorandum to Governor Kalyan Singh on the issue. The demonstrators were accompanied by several persons reportedly classified as dead in records.
Mr. Pilot said the denial of pension to the deserving old-age persons was not just an act of negligence, but was a conspiracy to humiliate the poor people.
“The BJP, which rode to power by hoodwinking poor people, has forced them to lead the life of penury by stopping the supply of foodgrains, medicines and pension to them.”
Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Rameshwar Dudi said each Congress worker would wage a struggle for restoration of pensions. PCC vice-presidents Bhanwarlal Meghwal and Archana Sharma, Jaipur City Congress president Pratap Singh Khachariawas, former MP Mahesh Joshi and former Minister Braj Kishore Sharma also addressed the demonstrators.
However, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Arun Chaturvedi later said in a statement that the Congress was trying to create confusion on the issue.
