While the Delhi Government has been publicising its Annashree Yojana and also promising a scheme to make the city kerosene-free, over 50,000 senior citizens have been waiting for about one year now for the government to release their pensions.

Slamming the government for not releasing the pensions, leader of the opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijay Kumar Malhotra criticised the government for ignoring the concerns of the senior citizens. “Over 50,000 pensions have been approved by the MLAs. All the formalities have been completed. However, the government is not releasing the money,” said Malhotra.

He also alleged that the government is only filling new forms for the Annashree scheme. “It is ironical that on one hand the chief minister Sheila Dikshit is asking the people to fill the forms under the scheme, on the other hand she is withholding the pension of over 50,000 people,” said Malhotra. These forms were filled by the beneficiaries last August. Over 8,000 of them were approved by the government. “Now the government has stopped accepting the forms,” added the senior BJP Leader.

“The Delhi chief minister has been putting up misleading advertisements all over the city, showcasing her false achievements,” he said. Malhotra also said though the government has funds to bail out inefficient power supply companies, Dikshit is not ready to provide relief to the poor senior citizens.

Delhi social justice minister Kiran Walia, however, said, “We are in the process of verifying the documents and scrutinising the forms.” Pensions will be released soon, she assured.