Former Minister of Law and Justice of India Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday called out Hindi news daily Dainik Bhaskar for publishing a report that claimed that his family is receiving benefits in the name of his mother even after her death.
Prasad said the report is baseless and devoid of truth, adding that her mother’s pension account was closed soon after she died in December 2020.
मेरी स्वर्गीय माता जी से सम्बंधित इस झूठी और भ्रामक खबर से मुझे बहुत पीड़ा हुयी है।
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) September 27, 2021
सम्बंधित अखबार ने खबर चलाने से पहले इस विषय में मुझसे या मेरे परिवार से कोई जानकारी प्राप्त नहीं की थी।@DainikBhaskar
Responding to the story which was posted by Dainik Bhaskar’s official Twitter account, Prasad tweeted, “Dainik Bhaskar has tweeted that my mother’s pension has continued even after her death, which is completely baseless and factually incorrect. My mother died on December 25, 2020, and her pension account was terminated on December 31, 2020. It is impossible to receive a pension in a terminated account.”
The former cabinet minister also said he is deeply pained by the misleading and false news published about his late mother, adding that Dainik Bhaskar did not seek information from him or his family members before publishing a slanderous article against his mother.
‘I am deeply anguished by the false and misleading news published about my late mother. The concerned newspaper did not seek any information from me or my family before running the news,” Prasad said in another tweet.
Besides Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nitin Naveen rubbished the claims made by Dainik Bhaskar, stating that he had sent a mail and asked the concerned authorities to close his mother’s pension amount on May 13, 2021.
Dainik Bhaskar publishes article claiming Bihar secretariat is paying pensions to dead people
Earlier today, Dainik Bhaskar published a report citing large-scale discrepancies witnessed in the disbursement of pensions to former MLAs. Referring to an RTI response, Dainik Bhaskar claimed that, Vimala Devi, mother of former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, was issued a pension of Rs 30 thousand 750 every month while Meera Sinha, mother of Road Construction Minister Nitin Naveen, Government of Bihar, was given Rs 62 thousand as pension amount in the financial year 2021-22. Vimala Devi had died on 25 December 2020 and Meera Sinha breathed her last on 30 March 2021.
After the clarification by the former Union Minister, Bhaskar updated its report, adding the reactions by RS Prasad and Nitin Naveen, but the news daily still maintains that RTI replies reveal pensions have been issued in the name of Prasad’s mother and Naveen’s mother in the 2021-22 financial year.
Bhaskar has claimed that they had initiated an investigation into the beneficiaries of the pension scheme and found names of people on the list who have died years ago. Among the pensioners of the Begusarai district, Bhaskar got the name of Saraswati Devi, wife of former Teghra MLA Rameshwar Singh.
Saraswati Devi had died on January 25, 2018, but an investigation conducted by Bhaskar claimed that Bihar Secretariat is still depositing pension amounts in her account. The Bhaskar report added that the descendants of Saraswati Devi have no idea that pension is being issued in their mother’s name. The family lives in poverty in a straw dwelling in their village. The report cites several other instances where former MLAs and their spouses have expired but the government is still issuing pensions in their names. The report hints at corruption at different levels of the Bihar government.
