The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that pension schemes under the National Social Assistance Programme were “prima facie” good schemes but there were “huge gaps” in their implementation, PTI reported.
Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said the Centre must have a machinery in place to implement the scheme. The court was hearing a plea filed by lawyer and Congress leader Ashwani Kumar.
The top court said there was a lack of administrative structure for the implementation of old-age pension schemes meant to help over 12 crore people, reported IANS. Lokur said the focus has to be on “budgeting, disbursement and utilisation”.
The bench asked the Centre to file an affidavit within three weeks indicating actual constitution of bodies mentioned in the programme, which monitors and evaluates the schemes. It also asked the government if there was a grievance redressal mechanism and if a social audit of these schemes has been conducted.
Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, who appeared for the Centre, said the NSAP has a budget of around Rs 9,975 crore in 2018-’19 and the government has allotted funds for pensions covering around three crore elderly people under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme. The Centre also said it “cannot go beyond” giving Rs 200 per month as pension to elderly people at this point.
“All this is fine on paper,” Lokur said. “In case of widows in Vrindavan, I do not think any one of them has been given any money. You have no idea how many widows are there in Vrindavan and in Jagannath Puri. You read our judgements and you will get to know.”
Kumar argued that the number of senior citizens has increased from 10.38 crore as per the 2011 census. He also said there were instances of delay of around six months in paying the meagre pension of Rs 200 per month and said the amount should be increased to at least Rs 3,000 per month as inflation was rising.
Kumar added that only seven states and Union territories gave senior citizens a monthly pension of Rs 2,000.
On September 30, senior citizens from across the country gathered in New Delhi to protest against the central government’s meagre contribution to their monthly pension, which they said had not changed in over 11 years now. Nearly 10,000 people from over 16 states marched to Parliament during the rally organised under the banner of NGO HelpAge India and Pension Parishad.
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