Grievances of Citizens of Mira Road.

To                                                                                                  Date: 12-11-10.

Hon. Shri Sankarnarayananji,

His Excellency Governor of Maharashtra,

Raj Bhavan, Maharashtra State Government,

Malbar Hill, Mumbai-400035.

Respected Sir,

Sub: Mercy Petition from 10 lakh Citizens of Mira Road-Bhayander Area of MMRDA for relief from Political bosses of Unions of Auto-Rickshaws.

1.       We have been representing for last 6 Years for plying of rickshaws on meter and for last 2 ½ years for making rickshaws to ply in entire MMRDA Area without any restrictions as ordered by Government of Maharashtra in their Notification no. MVR0807/C.R.136/TRA-2 dt 25-2-08, as rickshaws charge exorbitant rates for even short distance and drop the passengers at far away Stand at Dahisar Checknaka from where they have to walk a long distance for catching rickshaws for Borivali side.  For a short distance of about 1.6 km from Dahisar Checknaka to  Shrusti or any other near about areas, they charge Rs 40 or more depending upon bargaining. For other short distance places also, they charge Rs 25. Riickshaws from Mira Road drop passengers at their Stand at one end of Dahisar Checknaka, which is quite far from Stand of rickshaws going to Borivali Side, making passengers including school children, their mothers and Senior Citizens, handicaps etc to walk a long distance with luggage, heavy school bags in heavy traffic. Passengers coming from Borivali Side are also dropped at another Stand far away and not brought to the Stand of Mira Road.

2.       We have been corresponding continuously for so many years with RTO, Thane; Transport Commissioner, Bandra;  Ministry of Home dealing with Transport; Police Commissioner (Transport), Worli; Chief State Information Commissioner, Mumbai;  Chief Minister;  Home Minister and Ministry of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances but no one has been able  to get rickshaws run on meter nor to move them beyond their Stands at Dahisar Checknaka!! We have written more than 100 letters to all these concerned authorities from time to time but our grievance is not solved.

3.       Stock reply given for not running a single rickshaw on meter in entire area having population of almost 10 lakh citizens is that all rickshaws in this area are running on meters and as per Tariff Card prescribed and those not running on meter are fined from time to time!!  When not a single rickshaw is running on meter, such replies indicate helplessness of Authorities to get them carry out their orders by rickshawwalas!!

4.       As regards difficulties of citizens being dropped at different Stands and making them walk a long distance with luggage and in heavy traffic, written instructions were issued in 2006, 2007 and for plying in entire MMRDA Area in 2008 but no rickshaws carried out these orders. As regards plying rickshaws in the entire area of MMRDA as per State Government`s orders dt  25-2-08, RTO, Thane has now after 2 years of continuous correspondence with all the Authorities issued a Press Notification on 28-7-10 asking all Auto-Rickshawwalas to get their licences and other papers got authorized from RTO`s Office, Thane for plying in entire MMRDA Area. There does not appear to be any response to this inspite of our contacting and giving copies of this notification to one of their Union & many individuals and they say lot of money is being asked for this etc. It is not known whether any similar orders are issued by RTOs, Andheri,  Wadala etc for rickshaws coming to Mira Road from Borivali Side or whether there is any necessity to issue any such orders. Rickshaws registered with RTO, Andheri & Wadala do not require any endorsement for plying in areas of each other jurisdiction at present. In short, rickshaws of Mira-Bhayander area do not carry out these orders also and do not carry passengers beyond their Stand at Dahisar Checknaka and continue to charge exorbitantly as per their wish and exploit citizens and no DEMOCRATELY CREATED AUTHORITIES are able to make them carry out their orders!!

5.       We request you to kindly look in to this very sorry state of affairs of Helplessness of THESE AUTHORITIES  and get all rickshaws run on meter and ply in the entire area of MMRDA without any restrictions.

Thanking You,

Yours Sincerely,

Presentation to Planning Commission.

Note submitted to Prof. Abhijit Sen, Member, Planning Commission of India on his visit to TISS, Mumbai on 7-12-10 for views of Senior Citizens & their Organizations on 12^th Five Year Plan (2012-2017).

National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP) was adopted by Cabinet on 13-2-99 and declared by Government of India for welfare of Senior Citizens with clear directives  for implementation in Part IV- Implementation ( paras  98 to 106). In para 101, Planning Commission & Ministry of Finance were directed to facilitate budgetary provisions required for implementation of Five Year and One Year Plans to be prepared by each Ministry for aspects concerning them. Non-implementation of various provisions of NPOP, 99 for 11 years has resulted in Abuse of Senior Citizens of the Country as per definition of Abuse by INPEA and as such proper provision of fund for implementation of NPOP is very much necessary. Review Committee appointed on 28-1-10 is likely to give its recommendations shortly for revised Policy, provisions of which may be kept in view for provision of fund, if Policy becomes available by the time 12 th Plan is to be finalized.

It is observed from Mid-Term Appraisal of 11 th Plan that Senior Citizens are included in ``Socially Disadvantaged Group`` and it is hoped that all citizens in this group take full advantage of India`s Growth Story! Lot of funds is provided for various groups for Social Empowerment; Economic Empowerment and Social Justice. Though, Senior Citizens form part of this Group and is now more than 10% of total population and forming 20% of voters, only provision made for them is Rs 205 crores for integrated programmes in para 8.96 and their position is discussed in 4 paras 8.92 to 8.96, though they form very large proportion of entire group for whom position is discussed in 113 paras and thousands of crores are provided with number of financial, educational, legislative, shelter, safety & security measures in all spheres of life. Though Senior Citizens are more disadvantaged group of Society as compared to other groups included in this Disadvantaged Group, they are completely ignored by Planning Commission in 11^th Plan and earlier Plans inspite of clear directives in NPOP,99. Separate Ministries are provided for each such group of SC/ST/OBC; Disabled; Minority etc and eligibility for various grants and facilities are also provided at very high income limits with very high amounts of grants and monthly allowances, as compared to unfortunate group of even BPL Senior Citizens. This insulting & step motherly treatment of Elders must stop.

The following suggestions are made for making adequate provisions in 12^th Five Year Plan:-

1.     Financial Security: (Paras 24 to 32 of NPOP).

In para 24, One third of the population (1993-94) was taken as Below Poverty Line and another one third as lower income group requiring to be given some level of income security on very high priority. As per latest reports, 37% belong to BPL category and much higher % as lower income group. Level of income security provided to BPL at present is Rs 200 from Central Govt & similar amount or more from State/UT concerned.  Monthly Pension of Rs 400 or near about is a mockery of human beings and in view of recent development,  Human Rights  Commission may force the Government to keep this Pension sufficiently high to keep the old human beings to survive! Government spends Rs 20000 p.a. for one                          under trial prisoner and much more for convicts, whereas helpless BPL Senior Citizens, who are fragile and sickly due to ageing, are paid Rs 400 p.m. in some places and many States/UTs are not giving a single pie! Even alcoholic & drug addicts are granted Rs 900 p.m. by same Govt for food during their remaining in Anti-addict Centres!

Again, it is compulsory for getting advantage of this meager pension to get included in the list of families below poverty line of the State concerned. The procedure for inclusion of name in the category of Below Poverty Line is very cumbersome. Planning Commission of India vide their letter no.D-29013/RTI 285/2007 C&I dt 4-9-08 had advised that this is done as per Expert Group Method from the large sample survey data on house hold consumer expenditure conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization using the Consumer Price Index of Agricultural Laborers for rural poverty lines and Consumer Index for Industrial Workers for urban poverty lines. All-India poverty line for 2004-05 on the basis of expenditure-consumption data collected from 30 day recall period for all items worked  out to Rs 356.30 for rural & Rs 538.60 for urban poor. Each State has different figures and all-India figures are weighted average of the state-wise ratios. The Ministry of Rural Development has issued instructions to States/UTs to grant this megre Pension to those citizens, who are 65 and above and belong to a household below the poverty line, which is decided as per their guidelines for BPL Census, 2002. In these guidelines, 13 socio-economic parameters are prescribed to identify relative position of each family in rural area by giving variable scores from village to village depending upon local conditions for targeting people under Ministry`s Rural BPL Programmes. No such guidelines are issued by Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation for classifying an urban citizen as BPL. As against almost 4 crore BPL Senior Citizens, payment of IGNOAPension is made to 90.76 lakhs BPL Senior Citizens only as per figures give by Ministry of Rural Development i.e. to 22%.

   13 socio-economic parameters may be useful to Ministry Of Rural Development for launching a particular scheme in a particular village or for a particular family but in no way can help in deciding the eligibility to pay megre monthly Pension to Senior Citizens of 65 & above having megre income or staying hand to mouth in their last spell of life. How far such house to house survey applying 13 complicated parameters having 4 different scoring can be useful to decide eligibility for monthly Pension to Senior Citizens? There is no necessity of targeting Senior Citizens neither for paying IGNOAPS nor to fix their interse eligibility. More over, such guidelines go on changing for every Five Year Plan Period. We may give one example to consider the impracticality of such guidelines.  In the very well developed suburb of Mira Road of Mumbai, there are more than 8 lakhs of citizens having more than 80 thousand Senior Citizens, out of which 50 thousand are above 65 and more than 20 thousand are living below poverty line and pass their last spell of life hand to mouth. The number of all BPL Families, including citizens above 65 for this Area is only 17-seventeen, as advised by Municipal Corporation vide their letter no. ja.kra.manapa/sujayo/7/2009-10  dt 14-8-09. It would be clear from this that eligible Senior Citizens are not classified as belonging to BPL Families and not paid even this megre Pension due to complicated procedures causing corruption at various levels. Best way may be to hand over this work to Ministry of S.J. & E., abolishing the necessity of condition of belonging to BPL family and age limit of 65 years. Considering the poverty lines of each State, a financial income limit per month or per annum should be fixed for paying this megre Pension to Senior Citizens irrespective of their family income, as Senior Citizens staying in                                                                         

Joint Families and having no income or megre income are not properly looked after by children and not paid any pocket money etc. Proper financial limit for eligibility and  for amount of monthly Pension should be fixed by taking into account present economic condition of the Country having more than 1.7 lakh Indians having more than 5 crore worth assets and topping in first few richest persons in the World; GDP; Per Capita Income of Indian Citizen; rates of minimum wages; minimum pay & pension given recently to Government employees etc in place of present complicated method of 13 parameters and meager pension of Rs 400 p.m.!!  Limits adopted by Delhi Govt should be adopted for making provision of funds and this limit got accepted by Govt. Para 25 lays down that rate of monthly pension will need to be revised at intervals (6 monthly as per Dearness index of Govt employees) so that inflation does not deflate its real purchasing power. Senior Citizens in BPL category are weaker financially, physically and socially more discarded by family, society & Govt than all groups included in Disadvantaged Group as well as Women, Children, handicapped etc. All funds provided for such sections of Society should be increased or separately provided for BPL Senior Citizens for all purposes applicable to Senior Citizens.

Though Planning Commission does not estimate incidence of poverty for senior citizens but is the nodal agency for estimation of poverty in the country and as Rural Ministry fixes funny guidelines for classifying BPL for every five year plan period, it is requested that proper & sufficient funds provision is made for financial security of these BPL in 12^th Five Year Plan in view of above position. Some provision for financial security of Lower Middle Class is also necessary. Income generating activities also need proper provision in 12 th Plan with sufficient provision for Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme also. Planning Commission must respect the elders of the Country and atleast provide funds on par with  other Groups, if not more.

2.Health Care & Nutrition: (Paras 33 to 54).

Health Care is the first & foremost important necessity of Elders. Health Ministry has miserably failed to look after the basic needs of health care of Elders.  Director General of Health Services (NCD Division) vide his letter no. T-21014/02/2008-NCD dt 3-3-08 has advised that no funds were made available for health care of elders in 9^th & 10^th Five Year Plans. In thei r letter no. T.21012/02/2009-NCD dt 30-10-10 & 9-11-10, they have advised that they have formulated a National Programme for Health Care of  Elderly & development of National Institute s of Aging and Rs 288crore is approved by Govt for the remaining period of 11^th Plan Period (2010-12). The Operational & Financial Guidelines for implementation are being finalized in consultation with participating States. If this is the stage of implementation in Nov, 2010, provisions may lapse and require proper provisions in 12^th Plan!

Para 34 lays down affordable health services, very heavily subsidized for the poor and graded system of user charges for other senior citizens.  As 30 bedded health care units in 25 medical colleges, 10 bedded Geriatric Units/Physiotherapy Units at district hospitals in 100 districts will not be sufficient for entire lot of 10-15 crore of senior citizens during 2012-17, huge funds may be provided in 12^th Plan for large number of well-equipped Hospitals, Geriatric/Physiotherapy Units in each ward of Municipality/Panchayats.  Funds for provision of Centres for Dementia/Alzheimer /Palliative & Hospice /Mental Health/Counseling etc should also be provided.

Para 36 lays down necessity of affordable health insurance for elders on high priority basis, providing needs of different income segments with provisions of state subsidy for lower income groups. Nothing is done for this inspite of K.S. Sastry Committee recommendations lying for acceptance since 3 years! Provision may please be made for creating a sufficiently huge Welfare Health Fund for insurance needs of elders. This fund can be utilized to give subsidy to existing Insurance Companies or New Insurance Schemes for Senior Citizens.  Under  Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna for BPL,  limit of Rs 30000 for 5 members of family is again a mockery of human being, seeing the economic progress of the Country and this limit requires to be increased considerably and additional provision on this account also is required to  be made.

Para 48-49 envisages various provisions for shelter, Day Care Community Centres etc. 12^th Plan should provide for large funds for separate Colonies for elders with basic needs of common cooking, health care, entertainment, parks etc. All  XVI Schemes of Integrated Programmes for Older Persons by Nodal Ministry must get priority for provision of sufficient funds and provided in each ward of Municipality/Panchayat through the concerned Municipality/Panchayat on programmed basis within 3-5 years. Funds should be made available to Municipalities & Panchayats in advance to expedite provision of these basic needs of Senior Citizens.

3.     Education, Welfare, Protection of Life & Property: (Paras 55 to 71).

Sufficient funds should be provided for various types of literature for guidance of Senior Citizens for health care, utility of disability related aids & appliances, gadgets etc, advantages of social inter actions, community services, safe investment, second careers, guidance to Doctors & Para-Medical staff to behave properly with elders and education of Care Givers, safety precautions & availability of safety gadgets, availability of help from Police Personnel for 24 hours , help lines, rights of inheritance, existence of various concessions, benefits available to elders,  etc.  Sufficient funds should be provided for Welfare Programmes, Get-To-gathers, International Day for Elders etc for celebrations in big and encouraging way with more awards for elders at various levels to inspire & mitigate loneliness and negligent attitude of Society & Governments, Holiday Homes, Convalescent Homes, Nana-Nani Parks etc.

              4.    Family (Paras 80 to 82).

As per para 82, tax relief is to be provided for encouraging children to co-reside with parents. As this is not being done, provision may be made for giving a token grant/reward to such children to encourage joint family system or they may be felicitated and encouraged every year on some Joint Family Day or International Day of Older Persons.

5.     Miscellaneous (NGOs, Charitable Institutes- Paras  72 to 77: Media (Paras 88-89): National Associations of Older Persons at Centre & State/District levels (Para 104):

Provision for various grants envisaged in various paras for NGOs, Trusts etc may be made to encourage them to perform their expected roles.

It is our experience that our Very Powerful Media (IV th Estate of Democracy of our country) will not respond to any call to highlight any issues of Senior Citizens enthusiastically. It is therefore necessary to provide sufficient funds for the purposes laid down in these paras in 12 th Plan for Govt Sponsored Drives through advertisements.

Large Funds will have to be provided in 12 th Plan for establishing National Association of Older Persons (NAOP) envisaged in para 104, as welfare of Senior Citizens can be ensured only by such Organizations at local, district, state & central level.

All States/UTs should be provided sufficient funds for various provisions of NPOP,99 and implementation of Welfare & Maintenance of Parents & Senior Citizen Act,2007.