Senior citizens in Maharashtra get 5 years younger

Here is some good news for elderly people who are aged above 60 but have some more years to reach the 65year mark On Tuesday the state government declared that any person who is aged 60 years and above will be treated as a senior citizen and will be eligible for availing the entitled benefitsCM Devendra Fadnavis had given instructions to ministers and bureaucrats to take immediate steps towards formulating a policy for senior citizens File pic for representationCurrently people aged 65 years or above are certified as senior citizens by the state whereas the Centre has 60 years as the eligibility mark The new decision will come into effect from March 2016Social Justice Minister Rajkumar Badole made the announcement in the state legislative assembly on Tuesday The minister was questioned by legislators cutting across party lines as to why the government was delaying implementation of the senior citizensrsquo policy and not lowering the age mark for eligibility to 60 years on par with the CentreThe decision is expected to benefit about 40 lakh people According to information available some 11 per cent of the statersquos total population is aged 60 years or above The National Policy on Older Persons of India and the United Nationsrsquo Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing MIPAA 2002 of which India is a signatory stipulates that any person of and over 60 years of age is a senior citizenThe debate started following a calling attention motion by opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil Congress and other members which was taken up on Tuesday BJP members Medha Kulkarni and Ashish Shelar Congress legislators Varsha Gaikwad Madhukar Chavan and Abdul Sattar and others raised the demand for reducing the age limit on par with the Central governmentrsquos Indira Gandhi Pension Scheme 60 yearsMany benefitsWith the statersquos decision the people who are 60 years old will benefit from welfare schemes such as 50 per cent travel concession on state transport buses and various schemes being run by the social welfare and other departmentsSince the state senior citizensrsquo policy is still on paper despite being cleared by the Cabinet in 2013 Shelar wanted to know why it was not implemented yet Badole informed the House that the policy would be implemented early next year and June 15 designated as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day by UN will be observed in the state every yearBadole also assured Shelar that state would constitute a state council by next month to implement the policy Sources said many government departments will have to allot funds from their respective outlays in the state budget that will be presented in March next yearCM Devendra Fadnavis had given indications of implementing the policy on November 29 in Nagpur while inaugurating a new building of Sanjivan Vriddhashram old age home being run by an NGO Sanjivan SocioMedical Foundation He had given instructions to the ministers and bureaucrats concerned to take immediate steps towards implementing a policyThe chairman of Sanjivan SocioMedical Foundation Dr Sanjay Ugemuge welcomed the governmentrsquos prompt move ldquoThe decision will go a long way towards the welfare of old age people We have increasing number of senior citizens in the state who need timely support from the government because they are either economically weak or abandoned by their familiesrdquo said Ugemuge