Empathetic centres

Approximately more than 20 years back the then government had announced that senior citizens, ie 65 years and above, shall be given special treatment at public places. This included separate counters at banks, NSCs and all places/government departments doing public dealing. Initially, there were a few banks which opened up special counters for senior citizens. Unfortunately, this was for just a few months.

Now I come to the most important place for pensioners and senior citizens where a majority of them have to go every month. This place is the National Saving Centres, where most of the old people have invested their money. The NSCs offer excellent schemes which give reasonable returns on the money invested. The conditions there though are quite bad, in fact sometimes humiliating. The Ministry of Finance should address this issue seriously. The NSCs have to be made more spacious and staff strength has to be increased to boost efficiency and reduce the waiting time. Also, senior citizens have peculiar habits which are sometimes irritating for others. The NSC staff is requested to show a bit of tolerance and extend a helping hand to them as everybody has to some day reach this stage.

Sqn-Ldr (r) Tarique Mahmood Malak

Rawalpindi