THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former chief minister Oommen Chandy slammed the LDF government for blocking the previous UDF government’s welfare pension scheme in local self-governments due to political reasons and then shifting the blame for this to others. Though an apology was long overdue for delaying the social security pension by 16 months, the government should apologise for the same. 

According to Chandy, during the tenure of the previous government, the beneficiaries of social security pension had been divided into five categories and pensions ranging between Rs 800 to Rs 1,500 were paid based on this. 

Criticising the propaganda unleashed by the LDF government, Chandy recalled that the finance department in tenure had in February 2016 come out with a government order sanctioning `246 crore to SBT. He said the system of providing social security pensions via money order was changed to bank transaction to avoid paying huge commission charged for money orders.