Agricultural workers and landless poor formed a long queue in front of primary school here to receive pensions. But, to their dismay, names of several beneficiaries did not figure on the list prepared by the AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA).
The villagers said the CRDA officials verified the documents at their door steps, but still many of their names are missing. “The officials told me that my name was included in the pensioners’ list. Much against their words, my name was omitted,” said S. Ravi. He said that he was only breadwinner in his family. Kondaveeti Devudu, another resident, said that he ran from pillar to post in Mandadam CRDA office to get my name included.
“But, at the end of day, these people say I am not eligible,” he said. These were not isolated cases as many villagers fell in this category. There are a few villagers who received pension last month. But, their names were deleted this month. The villagers alleged that political compulsions played a role in deletion of names.
The panchayat officials said that they were helpless if any name did not figure in the list and the person concerned needed to approach the CRDA, they said. CPI(M) Capital Region convener Ch. Babu Rao said that the government was trying to bring down the number of pensioners. Tallayapalem is a hamlet of Mandadam village. The authorities have identified 2,425 beneficiaries. But, it was brought down to 1,219. The government distributed pensions only to 517 people by October 10.
Many villagers’ names were deleted under the pretext that they owned lands. The labourers who sold away their lands long back were being denied pension. The officials weeded out the applicants/pensioners on various counts such as the lack of Aadhaar card and white ration card. The anaganwadi workers were also denied pensions though they possessed white ration cards saying that they were government employees. In fact, their husbands work as agricultural labourers, he said.
