The Delhi government is looking into the case of eminent Urdu poet Asar Jamayee being declared dead by the city’s Social Welfare Department in 2013. Social Welfare and Culture Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam will visit the 80-year-old at his home on Monday, on the orders of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
Reports had said that after being incorrectly declared dead by the state government, Jamayee, who lives alone, had been deprived of his monthly pension of Rs 1,500. His efforts to seek help in the matter from both the previous Congress government in Delhi as well as Arvind Kejriwal’s administration were unfruitful.
“I told them, ‘I am standing in front of you, what could be greater proof [that I am alive]?’” the poet had told Sabrang India. “The official replied that he knew that I was alive, but he couldn’t help me because the records insisted I was dead.”
Gautam told The Indian Express that he had directed the “officials concerned to urgently take necessary action”, but he could not confirm whether “the facts stated are true”. “At times, names are struck off from lists of beneficiaries if people don’t submit living certificates, which is to be done annually,” the minister added.
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