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Kathmandu Saturday July 28, 2001 Shrawan 13, 2058.
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Elderly people deprived of allowance in
Dang
Post Report
LAMAHI, Dang, July 27 - More than 1,500 elderly people from
this district have been deprived of the state-sponsored Social Security Fund (SSF),
according to a report received here.
Under the SSF, an eligible elderly person above 70 years of
age, disabled and a widow above 60 years of age is entitled to receive Rs 100 per month
from his or her respective VDC office.
Local Development Officer of the Dang District Development
Committee, Bel Bahadur Bhujel, said that none of the new elderly, disabled and widows has
been registered since the programme was introduced.
A similar programme was first introduced in the country
during the CPN-UML led nine-month-old minority government and other successive governments
also gave continuity to it.
Dev Datta Sharma, 73, from Sonpur VDC-8, said that he has not
received any single penny from the SSF for the last three years.
Sharma is no exception. There are couple of elderly people
who always knock the door of their VDC with the hope of getting the allowance but return
home empty-handed.
"No new candidates eligible for the SSF’s monthly
allowance have been registered in the VDC," said Chaulahi VDC Chairman Rewati Raman
Sharma. He said the government has not released any fund for the SSF programme.
As of now, a total of 3,099 people - the elderly, disabled
and widows combined - are enjoying the SSF.
Sonpur VDC Secretary Harihar Sharma conceded that he received
no directives from the concerned agency to register new candidates for the government
funded social security scheme.
The Dang DDC received around Rs 4.3 million from the
government under the SSF, around Rs 172,000 less than what is needed for the total
eligible candidates of the SSF programme.
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