Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 23: A high court division bench of Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Bansi Lal Bhat today directed the advocate general to have instructions from the state government with regard to the time frame for enhancement of pension to disabled persons, widows and old aged people.
The bench, on the request of the advocate general, fixed this matter for further consideration on March 1, 2016. The court directive came in a PIL.
After hearing the counsels, the bench directed the advocate general to have instructions in this matter by specifying the time schedule for enhancing the disability pension from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per month.
When this PIL came up for hearing, attention of the bench was drawn towards the latest status report filed by secretary of finance department, wherein it was divulged that the financial position of the state at the moment was very poor as the current year's budget had a deficit of Rs 4,600 cr for which the finance department was struggling to mop up resources. The state has accumulated a power liability of Rs 7,000 cr, the status report said and added that presently there was no scope for further market borrowing as the state had accumulated debt level too which had crossed the permissible limit of Rs 50,000 cr and the central government would not allow to raise further debt in view of fiscal responsibility and Budget Management Act. The status report said the financial implications, as worked out by the social welfare department, were to the tune of additional Rs 275.19 cr per annum.
At this stage, when the bench asked the counsel appearing for finance department as to when the state government intended to enhance the disability pension as recommended by the social welfare department, he said as and when the financial health of the state improved, the finance department would accord its concurrence to the proposed enhancement.
The bench, however, expressed its anguish over the non-commitment of time limit by the finance department and said there had to be some time limit looking into the plight of the disabled persons and observed that at least in the next financial year, the enhancement should be considered.
The bench observed that there was no word in the status report about such intention. |
