Bhubaneswar: The Orissa Green Card Holder Women’s Association (OGCHWA) Tuesday staged a demonstration in front of the Orissa Assembly demanding fulfilment of its three-point charter of demands.
The green card holders demanded a monthly pension of `1,000, land for landless green card holders’ families and job reservation for candidates belonging to the category.
OGCHWA president Lakshmi Debi said, “There was a massive family planning campaign during the Indira Gandhi’s time. Many people were forced to undergo sterilisation. The Centre issued green cards to women undergoing family planning operation in which it was mentioned that at least five houses constructed by state governments or housing agencies will be reserved for green card holders’ families. Similarly, instead of four decimal homestead land the government would provide eight decimal land free, apart from providing housing loans and five per cent reservation of seats in medical and engineering courses.”
The green card holders were also supposed to get two increments if one of the spouses is a government employee. Moreover, green card holders were allowed to participate in a lottery of `10,000 per annum for once.
The women were lured by these provisions to undergo FP operations. However, these promises were hardly fulfilled, Debi added.
Though some government employees got benefits, poor women green card holders never got them, the OGCHWA president said, and sought immediate intervention of the Central and state governments to fulfill the demands.
PNN