DW BUREAU / Shimla

Facing criticism for not honouring a poll promise of giving Rs 1,500 per month to women in the age bracket of 18 to 59 years, the Himachal Pradesh government issued a notification on Thursday for granting pension under the Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi Yojana.

On March 4, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced that the state government will give Rs 1,500 per month to women and said a sum of Rs 800 crore would be spent on the initiative, benefitting more than five lakh women annually.

According to the notification, income-tax payers, women monks permanently staying in monasteries, family members of employees, pensioners of central and state governments and employees of panchayati raj institutions, local bodies and public sector undertakings of the state and central governments will not get the amount.

The other categories excluded from the pension are contractual employees, outsourced employees, daily wagers, part-time employees, ex-servicemen and their widows, anganwadi workers and helpers, Asha workers, mid-day meal workers, multi-task workers and beneficiaries of social security pension.

Providing Rs 1,500 monthly to women was one of the 10 "guarantees" given by the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh ahead of the Assembly polls.

Former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur has accused Sukhu of misleading women as the Congress had promised to give Rs 1,500 per month to women in the age group of 18 to 60 years. There are around 22 lakh women in the said age group in Himachal Pradesh.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, Thakur said the state government was coming up with "tricks" to exclude women from the pension scheme.

Whenever the government brings a scheme, its aim should be to include as many people as possible, the BJP leader said. But in this scheme, the government is making every effort to exclude most of the women by putting several riders, he said.
(editor@dailyworld.in)