GUWAHATI, Oct 20 � DN Chakravartty, member, National Council for Older Persons, in a memorandum to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, has urged the Government to provide pensionary benefits to all elderly persons over 70 years of age having no income from any source and fully dependent on the family.
Chakravartty urged the Government to treat these groups of elderly persons in the same category as the below poverty line (BPL)-level elderly persons.
The veteran journalist, who is also the president of the Guwahati Senior Citizens� Association, argued that such pensionery benefits to elderly persons would be necessary to relieve them of being fully dependent on the other members of their family even for their day-to-day minor expenses.
Chakravartty also suggested that persons (BPL) above 70 years of age, who were prone to various ailments, should be provided full medical aid and their medical expenses, whenever incurred, should be fully reimbursed. He said that those medical facilities should also be made available to all the elderly persons above 70 years having no income from any source.
In another suggestion, Chakravartty said that a frustrating experience of the elderly, irrespective of their background, had been the difficulty in securing better medical aid outside their own State. �Considering the fact that highly specialised medical facilities are not available in every State, it would be advisable if the Government of India introduces a new scheme under which all elderly persons above 70 years of age would be allowed conveyance allowance with one attendant together with the facility of getting reimbursement of the medical expenses for specialised treatment not available within their own State,� he said.
