Panchkula (Haryana), June 30 (IANS) Scores of elderly, handicapped people, widows and their families Thursday blocked the busy national highway number 22, connecting this Haryana town with Shimla, to protest delayed payment of their pensions, police said.
‘Around 150 to 175 people jammed this highway today for over one hour. We deployed heavy police force to keep the situation under control. Traffic was diverted to avoid inconvenience to commuters,’ Panchkula’s Deputy Superintendent of Police Ram Chander Rathi told IANS.
The agitators claimed that they were not getting pension for a long time.
‘I have not got my old-age pension for the last ten months. Panchkula administration has assigned the work of pension disbursement to a private company. But the company officials are very errant and we are facing countless problems,’ said Om Parkash, a resident of Sector 8 here.
Officials of the Panchkula administration reached the spot to pacify the protesters and assured them that the pension disbursement process will be streamlined in the next 15 days.
