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| ‘Senior citizens are nation’s treasure, repository of culture’ |
BUDGAM, OCTOBER 26: In a significant decision, Minister for Finance and Labour & Employment,
Dr Haseeb A Drabu, today announced that the pensioners of Jammu and Kashmir
government will get free insurance cover from the next year.
“Pensioners
are a nation’s treasure. They are the repository of our tradition and culture.
Keeping in view their contributions and hardships, we have decided that the
government will provide them free insurance cover from the next fiscal,” Dr Drabu
said.
The Finance Minister was speaking at a function at Sheikh-ul-Alam Hall
in Budgam where hundreds of pensioners from J&K Pensioners Welfare
Association were present. They were led by the Chairman of the Association,
Sampath Prakash.
The meeting was also attended by District Development Commissioner,
Budgam, Muhammad Harun, Senior Superintendent of Police, Budgam, Tejinder
Singh, Senior Citizens, Civil Society representatives and other officers of the
District Administration.
The Finance Minister said the situation in the last three decades has
taken a toll on the society which has lost the sense of eldership, “Our cultural
values and tradition have got eroded due to the situation in the last three
decades. Society has changed enormously which also impacts the way our senior
citizens are treated in their day to day life,” he said.
Dr Drabu said the new insurance scheme will cover all the state
pensioners of Jammu and Kashmir, “Our Government's endeavor is that all
senior citizens should get insurance cover, whether they have been state
government employees or not and we will hopefully move towards that end in
coming years,” he said.
Earlier, the pensioners put forth a list of issues faced by them before
the Finance Minister and sought his intervention in getting them addressed.
They said the benefits given to pensioners of state government must be extended
to state pensioners also.
The issues include removal in anomalies in SRO 94, enhancement of
medical allowances for pensioners from Rs 300 to Rs 2000, decreasing
commutation from 15 to 12 years, in toto implementation of Senior Citizens Act,
fulfillment of demands put forth in pre-budget discussion in Dec 2016, separate
department to deal with the issues of pensioners, hostels for pensioners in
every district headquarter, OneRank-One Pension policy for police personnel and
low rate of interest on bank loans for pensioners.
The Finance Minister assured them that their genuine demands will be
addressed in a proper timeframe.
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