Uttarakhand, 5,424 people have not got a single rupee since October 2016.
30-year-old, Raj Kumar, born with 60% disability that has rendered his limbs immobile. He can’t speak or move. His mother has to feed him. Rajawala village is 20kms. from Dehradun city.
“We were entirely dependent on the monthly disability pension of Rs 1,000 that my son was getting from the government. He’s not getting it now from last year October as he does not have an Aadhaar card. We tried to get it done several times but it could not be done as the machine could not take his fingerprints and iris scan”, says Neroo Devi the 62-year-old mother of Raj Kumar.
She further showed the copy of a letter from the social welfare department which mentioned Kumar and his pension had been stopped since his Aadhaar number had not been submitted. She further added that it’s very difficult to take her son time and again to an Aadhar centre in this position.
Further to mention that pensions of over 53,000 disabled, elderly and widows in Uttrakhand had been stopped since October 2016 as they had not submitted Aadhaar details. Out of 59,081 people who draw the disability pension in Uttarakhand, 5,424 have not got it since October 2016.
Officials said they were helpless and couldn’t do anything though a proposal was circulated to visit severely disabled and old people at their home to collect their biometrics, officials are yet to receive the machines for the exercise from the government.
