PALAKKAD: The government has now started collecting money from welfare pensioners also for organising Women’s wall on January 1, according to sources.

Rs 100 is being arbitrarily collected from each pensioner. This money is taken from the pensioners by officials deputed by cooperative banks to distribute the pension. The pensioners are served coupons for the money collected from them.

The name – Navodhana Mulya Samrakshana Samithy Pudussery Area Committee- is printed on the coupon. “They didn’t tell us anything; when I asked what this was, they gave this paper, saying they have deducted Rs 100 from our pension,” said an old woman named Petta living at Venoli, Pudussery in Palakkad.

Since the government has not officially announced the collection of fund, it is not clear which all organisations are collecting money.
In Pudussery panchayat alone, 5100 people are receiving welfare pension directly. Rs 100 collected from each one of them will sum up to Five lakh ten thousand rupees.