By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Bhubneshwar : “State Wakf Board has stopped our pension without any official intimation “, claimed divorced Muslim women of Orissa.
A public meeting was organized by them under the banner of Talaki Mahila Sahayata Samiti at PMG Square and a delegation met the Orrisa Chief Minister and submitted him a memorandum requesting his intervention.
According to the memorandum, the Wakf Board has been given the task by the High Court of giving pension to divorced Muslim women. About 350 women were getting the pension, but violating the judicial order, the Board has stopped the pension scheme.
A share for divorced Muslim women in the Antodaya, AnapurnaYojna, BPL card scheme and several other Government programmes is demanded by the Samiti. Saira Mirza, President of the Samiti stated that beneficiaries have so far got pensions for six months since the introduction of the scheme in May 2006.
The high Court has directed the Government to give pension to 350 women whereas nearly 1000 such women are living in the state, she said.
The Samiti claimed that the Waqf Board is not working properly. Mirza said that they urged the Chief Minister to intervene personally in the working of the Board and give them justice. M. Afroz Begum, Secretary of the Samiti, Sofia Nasreen, Rahima Bibi, Hurmat Bibi and Roshan Ali Khan were among those present on this occasion.