Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
Related Articles
From his petty shop opposite the Jeevan Deep building on Parliament Street, Lal Poddar has had a ringside view of thousands of dharnas organised at Delhi’s premier protest venue. Monday’s rally by the Pension Parishad and HelpAge India, however, had a personal significance for him. “They are demanding a pension of Rs. 3,000 a month for everyone. I have been working in this shop for 24 years, but now I am getting old. I am 60 years, and I want to go back to my village in Bihar, but I don’t want to burden anyone there,” said Mr. Poddar, joining more than 10,000 elderly protesters from around the country in demanding a minimum monthly pension of Rs. 3,000, which is half the minimum wage, as a universal entitlement for senior citizens, single women and the disabled. Leaders of the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Nationalist Congress Party came out in support of the protestors and vowed to raise the demand in Parliament for the cause of the seniors.
