Indian state Haryana, ruled by Modi's BJP, to give monthly pension to cancer patients

The government of the northern Indian state of Haryana has made a separate annual budgetary provision of Rs 68.42 crore (£6.8 million) to provide patients suffering from Stage-3 and Stage-4 cancer in the state a monthly pension of Rs 2,500 (£25).

The decision follows an earlier announcement by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is from prime minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, to grant monthly pensions to cancer patients.

"Earlier, in terms of giving monthly pension to cancer patients, Tripura was the only state in the country that has been giving monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,000 (£10) to Stage-3 cancer patients," an official statement said in Chandigarh on Friday (23).

The Haryana government has decided that cancer patients will continue to get an additional monthly pension of Rs 2,500 even if they are taking advantage of other social security pension or old age pension schemes, it said. 

Khattar, while meeting the families of cancer patients in May, had assured that the state government would extend all possible help to them.

He had informed that this assistance would be given to those patients with an annual family income up to Rs 3 lakh (£3,005).

"The pension will be transferred directly to (the patients') bank accounts through the Public Financial Management System. In a bid to ensure that the actual beneficiaries get the scheme benefit, income verification of such patients would be matched with 'Parivar Pehchan Patra' (family ID).

"The beneficiary will get the said benefits till they are alive," it said.

The documents will be verified by a committee of the district's civil surgeon's office.