Editor,
The country already has a specific law for elderly care — the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act — brought in during the first term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Under the Central law, the neglected parents will have to apply to a tribunal constituted by the state government under a sub-divisional officer, who is ranked deputy collector or sub-collector.
While the Central law is wider in its application, the Telangana law is applicable specifically to employees. The Central law is stronger as it bars civil courts from granting any injunction against the order passed by the tribunal. under the law. According to the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, 2021, 52 percent of India’s elderly experienced abuse.
Telangana’s accountability law over welfare of government employees’ parents reflects a pressing need, especially in a country that often invokes ideals, yet increasingly falls short in practice. The state reports disturbing figure of elderly abuse yet punishing with social disapproval underscores the gravity of the issue
The Bill, which awaits Governor’s assent to become a law, will be applicable to government employees, as well as those in the private sector, and aims to ensure a life of dignity, welfare, and financial security to senior citizens in the state.
The Telangana Employees Accountability and Monitoring of Parental Support Bill, 2026 has been passed by the Telangana government, broadly in line with the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. The key difference is that the new Bill expands the scope of the law to include private employees, in addition to government staff and elected representatives. While provisions such as a salary deduction of 15 percent or Rs 10,000, whichever is lower, remain unchanged, Telangana has gone a step further by proposing an institutional mechanism to ensure effective enforcement.
This raises a difficult question: can legislation alone address what is essentially a moral crisis? Existing laws, including the central Act and similar measures in states such as Assam, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, have not fully alleviated the problem. Even so, given the scale of the issue, enforcement remains necessary. At the same time, legal measures must be complemented by greater awareness—both of the law and values it seeks to uphold. In an era increasingly defined by nuclear families, and perhaps moving toward greater individualism, what is needed is not just regulation, but a broader cultural renewal.
Under the Central law, the neglected parents will have to apply to a tribunal constituted by the state government under a sub-divisional officer, who is ranked deputy collector or sub-collector. The Telangana law empowers designated authorities, including district collectors, to issue salary apportionment orders and deposit the money into the parents’ bank accounts. India is one of the few countries where parents spend most of their income to provide a better life to their children. jobs, nuclear families and changing lifestyles have weakened these traditional support systems. Increasingly, reports emerge of elderly parents living in neglect, financial insecurity and emotional isolation despite having employed children
Yours etc.,
Yash Pal Ralhan,
Via email
Where is the Ward’s Lake Bridge
Editor,
The MDA Government has been doing everything in and around Ward’s Lake barring the construction of the bridge which is the actually the main attraction of the Lake. Last heard, some local architectural firm had made a project proposal to construct the bridge in a manner that would vestiges of the old while taking on new features. Nothing has been heard of that project and the bridge, which is a favourite haunt for people feeding the fishes there and watching them splashing around because they say it gives them a thrill, has been kept closed to tourists for over three years now.
No one really knows why there is so much construction within the Lake area which should actually remain a free ground where people can just sit and relax. Why even have a market inside a Lake? Some people in the Tourism Department seem hell bent on destroying some of the most visited tourist sites. I wonder why and also where they get their hare-brained schemes from. Now the Government wants to lease out land for building a hotel right in the middle of the Umiam Lake. The very thought is horrifying because the sewage would then find its way into the Lake and at what cost to the environment? Clearly someone in the Tourism Department is hyper ambitious and that ambition needs to be nipped in the bud.
Yours etc.,
John D Rani,
Via email
