Lumbini, Feb 3: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Paudel, has said the incumbent government is aware of issues of senior citizens and is also sensitive towards them. Laying a foundation stone for a Senior Citizens Union Centre at Tilottama Municipality-4 in Rupandehi today, the Minister who represents the major coalition partner CPN (UML) said the government led by party leader the late Manmohan Adhikari had in 2052 BS introduced the social security allowance for senior citizens for the first time in the country.
He shared that the social security allowance that was started with Rs 100 has been increased to Rs 4,000 during his tenure as the Finance Minister at the direction of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Finance Minister Paudel went on to say that however government initiatives for senior citizens are not enough and the government is working with the realisation of the situation.
He was hopeful of support from the government to complete the project. Lawmaker Basudev Ghimire applauded the community level efforts to build the facility for senior citizens, though it was supposed to be undertaken from the province-level.
Tilottama Municipality Mayor Ramkrishna Khand pledged to support on behalf of the local government to implement the project. The facility that will provide daycare services to 500 senior citizens at once will have five stories equipped with advanced features, according to Centre Chair Rhishi Bhandari.
