The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) (SUCI-C) on Wednesday staged a protest near the new Deputy Commissioner’s office here, condemning the alleged stoppage of pensions to elderly persons, widows, persons with disabilities and transgender persons for the past four to five months.

The protesters demanded that the government immediately resolve the issue and release the pending pension amounts to all eligible beneficiaries.

Addressing the gathering, AIDYO district secretary Suma S. said it was unfortunate that elderly pensioners, poor widows, persons with disabilities and transgender persons had been forced to take to the streets to secure their livelihood. Many beneficiaries were struggling to meet even their basic food and medical expenses, she said.

SUCI-C district secretary B. Ravi said Karnataka had around 83 lakh pension beneficiaries, of whom about 18 lakh had reportedly been identified as suspicious. Their pensions had allegedly been stopped pending submission of fresh documents.

“Why should all pension beneficiaries be asked to submit documents afresh merely because there may be some ineligible or benami beneficiaries?” he questioned.

Ravi said many beneficiaries, particularly those living in rural areas, were unaware of the requirement to submit fresh documents. He also questioned how allegedly ineligible beneficiaries had been sanctioned pensions in the first place if their applications had been properly verified by government officials.

He alleged that corruption were responsible for the problem and said the government should act against those responsible instead of penalising poor and vulnerable pensioners by withholding their financial support.

“If the government has any sensitivity, it should not force poor, helpless and elderly people to come onto the streets. The only way to make the government understand their problems is to build a united movement,” he said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Aishwarya, who visited the protest venue, received the memorandum from the protesters. She assured them that a meeting of district tahsildars would be convened shortly and instructions would be issued to expedite the issuance of income certificates.

She also assured the protesters that their demand for increasing the income ceiling prescribed for pension eligibility would be forwarded to the State government.

The protesters warned that they would intensify their agitation if the issue was not resolved.

District committee member Sandhya P.S., M. Umadevi and others were present. People from various localities in Mysuru city and villages in T. Narasipur, Nanjangud, H.D. Kote, K.R. Nagar, Periyapatna and Hunsur taluks participated in the protest.

Published - August 19, 2026 08:09 pm IST