THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The council meeting held here on Wednesday witnessed heated debate over irregularities surfaced in the survey to identify ineligible welfare pension beneficiaries. BJP alleged that it was a criminal error on the part of officials concerned to mark alive beneficiaries as dead during the survey and then denying them the pension amount.As per the survey, 2,467 persons were reported as ineligible beneficiaries out of 74,649 beneficiaries in city corporation limits. 1,532 persons were declared as dead and 935 persons were reported as owning car. BJP parliamentary party leader MR Gopan said that it was a criminal offence to declare a living person dead. BJP councillor Girikumar recalled instances where a beneficiary who sold vegetables on push cart was declared as having a car.Mayor V K Prasanth told the council that 700 applications have been received so far seeking survey results. "It is a known fact that of the 70,000 odd beneficiaries there would be clearly some ineligible people. The survey was to find out such people, if error has occured, it will be rectified as the beneficiaries have been asked to furnish an affidavit," said V K Prasanth.Earlier in the session, UDF councillors walked out of the meeting after mayor V K Prasanth had denied permission for a discussion on non-availability of land for LIFE housing mission.

Stay updated with all the Latest Thiruvananthapuram headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.