INDIA: Proposed Law for Older Persons Stuck Up Over Finances

NEW DELHI (United News of India), May 24, 2006: The proposed model legislation for ensuring care and protection of older persons, which had been by and large supported by states, is stuck up with the Finance Ministry expressing its inability to meet financial commitments under some of the provisions of the Bill. Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar had promised to introduce the bill in Parliament last year. It could not be possible for lack of clearance from the Finance Ministry which says it has no funds for the kind of assistance promised to the elderly, sources in the ministry told UNI.