DMK, AIADMK lock horns over old age pension distribution

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK and opposition AIADMK locked horns in the State Assembly over the issue of distribution of Old Age Pension (OAP) to the senior citizens in the state.

Participating in the debate on demand for grants for the revenue department in the State Assembly, former minister and AIADMK MLA R Kamaraj set the tone for the debate when accused the DMK regime of stopping OAP to 7.5 lakh old people in the State. Responding to the charge, State Revenue Minister KKSSR Ramachandran said that about 4.38 lakh senior citizens were removed from OAP beneficiary list during the 2014-15 financial year in the previous AIADMK regime.

Pointing out that a whopping 15.20 lakh persons were removed from the OAP beneficiary list, minister Ramachandran said that people were weeded out based on factors like death and failure to meet the eligibility criterion like property worth Rs 10 lakh registered on their names.

Arguing that about 1.6 beneficiaries among three lakh persons removed from the list were issued OAP again using the old application forms, the minister assured that no eligible beneficiary would be denied OAP.

Intervening during the debate, Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami said that about 20,000 people were provided OAP in the fag end of the previous DMK regime just before polls. Arguing that old people who own half and 0.75 acre cannot eke out a living out of it, the LoP asked the state to reconsider the applications and issue OAP to the left out beneficiaries.

Reacting to the charge, State Rural Development Minister I Periasamy who handled the revenue portfolio in the previous DMK regime, said that a designated Tahsildar oversee the issue of OAP and the stringent conditions for issue of OAP was removed in the previous DMK regime led by then chief minister M Karunanidhi. He also alleged that several beneficiaries in his constituency were removed and beneficiaries were added in former ADMK minister R B Udayakumar's constituency in the previous tenure. Meanwhile, EPS added that a Tashildar was suspended in connection with the distribution of OAP to 20,000 persons without applications. Seeking to clarify, minister KKSSR Ramachandran said that whenever some people are removed from the OAP beneficiary list, the granted sum does not return to the government, instead the next set of eligible beneficiaries in the seniority list are enrolled for the OAP scheme.