TDP, BJP, JSP lodge complaint with National Human Rights Commission urging action against Chief Secretary for alleged deaths of elderly people during pension disbursement

NDA parties complain to NHRC about elderly deaths due to pension collection, blame Chief Secretary for negligence.

The National Democratic Alliance parties, TDP-JSP-BJP lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to direct the Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary K. S. Jawahar Reddy to make arrangements for delivering pension at doorsteps of beneficiaries by using 1.3 lakh staff of village and ward secretariats and other government staff without fail.

The NDA parties lodged the complaint in the wake of the alleged death of 33 elderly people who were compelled to travel two to four km to collect their pension for the month of April.

Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar, former TDP MP (Rajya Sabha), Shaik Baji, president, AP BJP Minority Cell and Daneti Sridhar, Jana Sena party leader submitted a letter to the NHRC in New Delhi on April 9, alleging that the Chief Secretary was responsible for making life difficult for the elderly despite having sufficient staff to provide pension at their doorstep.

The NDA leaders further alleged that the Chief Secretary deliberately compelled the aged people to walk all the way as per the instructions of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. The Opposition leaders alleged that the Chief Secretary was doing all these to blame the TDP, BJP and JSP on the one hand and to favour the YSRCP in the general elections on the other hand.