Badals preparing for 2017 elections!

80% ineligible pensioners turned eligible

At least 80% of ineligible old-age pensioners have turned eligible after the revision of lists in the district represented by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

These eligible persons have even been paid the arrears for the period they were declared ineligible.

The government had found 3.76 lakh ineligible old-age pensioners when it undertook first investigation of these cases last year.At least 75,506 cases were found eligible during reinvestigation. Arrears of previous months were given to pensioners only in Bathinda district while the benefit was denied in other districts.

Bathinda and Muktsar districts represented by the Badals have gone through the third revision and now orders have been given for reinvestigation of ineligible pension cases for the fourth time. Sources say there could be only a handful of ineligible persons before the 2017 elections.

As per information procured through the RTI and published by a leading daily from Chandigarh 18,395 cases were found ineligible in Bathinda in the first revision. After the three revisions, only 3,575 persons are ineligible and nearly 80 per cent have become eligible for pension. A sum of Rs73 lakh has been released for these eligible persons. In Muktsar, 20,987 persons were found ineligible in first revision and after three revisions, the number has reduced to 9,505.

In Amritsar, of 29,953 ineligible pensions, only 3,437 were declared eligible after a revision, In Ferozpur, 2,095 of 16,454 and Patiala, 1,833 of 19,439 ineligible persons were declared eligible.

These eligible pensioners have not been given arrears as is the case in Bathinda.