In a shocking incident, an elderly man died while waiting in a queue to submit an old age pension form in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district on Tuesday, Local news agency Kashmir News Observer reported.
The Jammu Kashmir administration recently announced that the old-age pension beneficiaries must submit their forms for online registration as the process was being moved online.
The Kashmiriyat reported several stories on the issue from various districts of Kashmir valley on how old-age pension beneficiaries were forced to stand outside designated offices for hours despite the intense cold.
Many beneficiaries said that they had been turning to the designated offices for several days, but the officials showed “non-seriousness” about their forms being registered. Some had been coming to the designated offices for several weeks and returning dejected every day.
An official, quoted by local news agency, said that the man suddenly collapsed while he was waiting in queue to submit an old age pension form at Tehsil Social Welfare Office Bandipora.
He said soon after he was rushed to the district hospital Bandipora, where he was declared dead on arrival due to cardiopulmonary arrest as the suspected cause of death.
The official identified him as Sonaullah Bhat (62) son Ghulam Hassan Bhat of Malangam.
Meanwhile, a police official while confirming the incident said the man died of natural death and his body has been handed over to police after legal formalities—(KNO)