The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Odisha on Wednesday staged a demonstration in front of the State Assembly here demanding immediate resumption of monthly pension to the State’s 606 Muslim divorcee women. later, a delegation submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in this regard.
The Muslim divorcee women under the leadership of AAP leader Nishikant Mohapatra came in a procession and staged a rally at the lower PMG protesting the State Government’s apathetic attitude towards them. Attending the rally, lawyer Asfaq Ali, who is fighting for the cause of the women, alleged that the Wakf Board has stopped the allowance to the women since February 2014 in spite of the law Department’s sanction for the same without any communication to the beneficiaries.
Ali said the State Government which added another 546 divorcee women into the beneficiaries’ list and also sanctioned budget in the year 2011-12 is yet to provide relief to the target women group. The divorcee women who are listed for the pension are not facing the problem alone, but the group of 786 women who have submitted their respective judgements in the Wakf Board and waiting for sanction to their pension application are also apprehensive of their future, he added.
AAP Odisha convener Nishikanta Mohapatra said, “It’s a matter of great concern that the women who were receiving monthly pension since 2007 as per a court order are now suffering due to the denial of the same without any valid reason.” Mohapatra reiterated the party’s demand for immediate release of pension to the divorcee Muslim women and to award pension to the divorcee pension applicants as soon as possible.