The Corporation Council on Friday demanded that the state government should continue distributing welfare pensions to beneficiaries through post.
The demand was raised against the backdrop of the government making Aadhar card mandatory for the beneficiaries of welfare schemes from April 2013. The resolution was introduced by V S Padmakumar, chairman of the Works Standing Committee, who said that physically handicapped and elderly people would find it difficult to receive the pensions if this plan was implemented.
There was also a huge outcry in the council regarding the allocation of money to ‘own fund’ so as to carry out the necessary activities in the wards. Councillors said that the present situation was to wait for plan fund to be allotted to carry out the works. In her response, Mayor K Chandrika said that the money will be allocated when the government pays Rs 36 crore as pension contribution.
Another demand was to examine the RFID (Radio Frequency Identity Card) project, which was taken up by the Corporation initially for comprehensive monitoring of solid waste management. The company which was entrusted with the task of installing the system has demanded that it should be paid 72 per cent of the cost in return. The project was to be implemented based on a tri-partite agreement between the Corporation, state and Central governments. The Mayor said the subject will be included in the agenda of the next council meeting.