Elderly people suffer scorching sun, long queues to collect govt allowance in Bhubaneswar

Elderly beneficiaries across Odisha are facing many problems while collecting their allowances. Beneficiaries at the Bharatpur Gopabandhu Government UP School located on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar had to wait in queues for long hours under the scorching sun on Friday to collect their old age allowances provided by the State government.

As per reports, as the government increased the monthly old age allowance by Rs 500, several beneficiaries had come to the school to collect their allowances. However, the beneficiaries that included the elderly and differently-abled persons had to wait in long queues for six to seven long hours under the scorching sun. Sans drinking water facilities and arrangement of shade, two or three persons among the beneficiaries even fainted, informed sources.

“I had to wait in a long queue under the open sky from 9.30 am. Finally, I got the allowance at 2pm. I lost my consciousness due to the scorching heat,” said a beneficiary.

“We were told to collect the revised amount of the allowance from here. We have been waiting in the queue since 8 AM. However, we are yet to receive the amount. We are also not sure whether we will get our allowances from here or from the bank,” said another beneficiary.

“We have to wait in long queues under the open sky and scorching sun to collect our allowances. There are no drinking water facilities and arrangement of shelters here to take a little bit of rest. We have to go through hassles to collect our allowances,” rued a beneficiary. 

No response was received from the concerned authorities.