Starvation death in Kuppam; Govt. failure flayed

Brushing aside Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s claim that there are no starvation deaths in the State, YSR Congress has said an old man has died in Kuppam constituency as he did not receive pension for the past four months and demanded that a user friendly mechanism should be evolved in disbursing the pensions instead of harassing them through bureaucratic means. The State should own responsibility for the death.

“A78-year old person, M Muneppa, has died in Kaluvalpalli of Gundupalli mandal of Kuppam, being represented by N Chandrababu Niadu, as his pension was stopped for the past four months on the pretext of age certificate. He has no means of income as his son is a drunkard and his granddaughter is mentally retreaded. The villagers donated small amounts to carry out his last rites.

The disbursement of pensions is cumbersome at many other places and we demand that the State evolve a mechanism for an easy way of disbursement as the old and disabled people are put to lots of hardships in collecting the pensions,” Party spokesperson Amabati Rambabu told reporters here on Saturday.

Though the Chief Minister has time and again told the State Assembly that there are no starvation deaths in the State and pensions are being disbursed properly, it was widely reported that an old woman died in the stampede during pension disbursement at Vijayawada and an old man died due to exertion stemming out of the long wait in the queue.

Old and disabled people are unable to stand the harsh regimen and we demand that the disbursement should be made easy and inclusive of all sections.

The official website shows that there are 40, 52,357 eligible pensioners while only 30, 87, 368 were paid which is a 25 % backlog. The State has been downsizing the number of beneficiaries on some pretext or the other and it is unfair to trouble the old and disabled, he said.

When asked about YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s agitation programme, he said it will be decided soon.