A delegation led by activist Aruna Roy along with several elderly from the Pension Parishad had two rounds of interactions Rahul Gandhi, Vice-President, Congress on Wednesday.
The elderly used this opportunity to elaborate their plight especially since they have been sitting in dharna for the last two weeks and were patiently waiting for the government to act on the commitments they had made to revamp the old age widows and disability pension.
Aruna Roy reiterated that “the gulf between the aam adami and the government is only going to widen if assurances made on public platforms and in writing are not fulfilled”.
“We are extremely disappointed that the government has gone back and the assurances of the Minister of the Rural Development gave all of us loud and clear at Parliament Street way back in March 2013,” stated Rambhav Shinde from Maharashtra.
Taking this forward Janaki Devi from Madhya Pradesh added “even this assurance we got after coming 4 times to Delhi since May 2012 and over 7 months have gone by and we have returned twice after that and still nothing has moved.”
Mr. Gandhi listened to the woes of the elderly, expressed support and promised them he will go back to the government and pursue this matter.
