Himachal Government has come up with a new programme known as “Integrated Programme for Old People” for the elderly persons of the state announced Sarveen Chaudhary, the Social Justice and Empowerment Minister.
She said that 90 % of the cost of the project would be borne by the Government of India and the remaining by the organization or institution concerned. The Government would also provide grant-in-aid for running and maintaining old age houses for 25 old persons to provide them food, shelter, health care, recreation facilities etc. free of cost. In order to provide facilities of day-care, health-care, recreation, peer interaction, spiritual programmes, grant-in-aid worth Rs.4, 06,000 would be given for a project having about 50 elderly persons while a grant-in-aid up to 2,96,000 would also be provided to organizations and institutions for mental health care and specialized care for the elderly persons, help-lines and counseling centers for older persons, awareness generation programme for elderly persons, multi facility care centers for destitute older women and volunteer bureaus for the elderly people.
Institutionlising old people is like throwing away garbage in dustbin. Instead of pending money on such kind of projects, the BJP government should fulfill its electroral promise which says that it shall provide pension on Punjab pattern to all the people above the age of 60.