Ramzan and Ugadi festivities goes without joy and fervor for disabled persons as disbursement of Aasra Pension has not yet made despite half of the month has passed while the government dole was supposed to be released upto 5th of every month.
Although the new fiscal year sets into motion since the month of April after concluding the month of March but coincidently this month also carries a most revered festival of Ugadi. The delay in releasing the pension made the beneficiaries upset who are venting frustration against the holdup.
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“Leave alone the loan facility, even the Aasara pensions are not yet released to the disabled persons. We were expecting that the government would release the pension before Ugadi festival but to our dismay it was not done until now,” bemoaned A.Srinivas, a disabled person from Gagan Pahad area.
As per the conservative estimation there were over 11 lakhs disabled people in the state waiting to get the financial aid from the government under Aasra scheme. While there are total 4,82,409 disabled persons getting benefitted under Aasara scheme in the state, only Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts have 28,228 and 26,394 disabled persons respectively.
“We are solely depending on the Aasara pension being released every month. How we can get the monthly ration and secure wherewithal without having a penny in our hands. Officials are complacently saying that the release would take time till the end of this month as the government departments are busy in preparing new fiscal proceedings. Disabled people are the most neglected section of the society who always suffers in silence without any commiseration,” felt Mohd.Mahboob, another disabled person from Rajendranagar.
The sources said, “As the new financial year has sets into motion offlate, it would surely take more 10 to 15 days to release the pensions under Aasra Scheme as March is the opening month.”
“There are nearly seven lakh applications of different categories pending since the last three years under Aasra Scheme. Earlier the pensions would have been sanctioned within two to three months after applying. However, the present situation is quite different wherein applications are not getting approved even after three years,” said State Honorary President National Platform for the Rights of Disabled (NPRD) Gorenkala Narsimha.
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Leave alone the new applications, he further said, the government didn’t take pain even to fill the gap of expired disabled persons who were passed away during the last three years. “Government should make early release of the pensions of the month of March besides taking appropriate measures to clear all the pending applications thrown out under the littering basket since three years,” demanded Narsimha.
