Widow and old age pension: 'No. of beneficiaries up by 20% in past 3 yrs'

kolkata: State Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Minister Shashi Panja in the Assembly on Monday said that the number of beneficiaries getting old age and widow pension in the state has increased over 20 per cent in the past three years.

More than 32 lakh people in the state are now getting widow and old age pension. In 2019, the number of beneficiaries stood at around 83,738 while the figure jumped to 16,89,657, the minister told the House.

BJP MLA Ashok Lahiri raised questions on the necessity of the scheme when the Centre runs a similar social scheme.

In reply to the question, Panja said that Centre provides some benefits to the people belonging to BJP category whereas in Bengal any people from the economically weaker section of the society can avail the benefits under the State's social security scheme.

Incidentally, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently made it clear that women receiving the widow pension will

also be entitled to the benefits of the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme.

Social security pensions of Rs 1,000 per month are provided to women in Bengal.

In the case of Lakshmir Bhandar, women in the age group of 25-60 years get Rs 1000 for the SC/ST and OBC while for the general caste, the amount is Rs 500 per month.

The scheme that is executed by the state Women and Child Development and Social Welfare has recently bagged the Skoch award.

More than 1.8 crore women in the state receive the benefits of this scheme.

It may be mentioned here that State Law Minister Moloy Ghatak during a question answer session in the Assembly said that a sub-divisional court will come up in South 24-Parganas' Canning.