Out of many artists of Jharsuguda district, 572 were selected to get pension or allowance from the Government. But due to lackadaisical attitude of district administration, they are deprived of getting allowances for last seven months.
As a result, the poor artists are spending their life miserably.
Last year, the State Government received applications from all the senior artists to give monthly pension of Rs 1,200. Over 600 artists of Jharsuguda district had applied, out of which 572 artists qualified for the allowance. For only four months of last year during November and December and January and February this year, they have received a total Rs 4,800. But from March to September this year, they have not received any allowance.
The Government has stopped the allowance of Rs 500 of these senior artists under the Madhubabu Pension scheme.While on one side, the artists were deprived of pension for seven months, they were alsonot given pension under Madhubabu Pension scheme which has made their lives miserable.
The pension was helping them a lot to maintain the livelihood. Some of them were also purchasing medicines out of the pension. But now, they are passing their life under great mental stress. Meanwhile, four artists have also died due to the situation.
The hapless artists have drawn attention of District Information and Public Relations Officer Ajay Jena to pay their dues but to no avail. They also submitted a memorandum to district Collector SarojSamal, who assured the artists to release the pending allowance within four days.
When contacted, DIPRO Jena replied that due to transfer of three Collectors within seven months, the concerned file could not get approval for such pension.
“If our pending pension is not given within four days, we will protest by performing music in front of the Collector's office,” threatened artists Deb Charan Pradhan, Thandaram Bhoi, Rohit Kumar Behera and Populal Biswal, among others.
