Tamil Nadu   

Widow receives family pension after 30 years

Mohamed Imranullah S.

MADURAI: K. Sankarammal of Madurai became a widow early in life. But the sexagenarian and her four children had to wait for some 30 years to receive the family pension and other terminal benefits due to her husband who was employed with the State Highways Department. The reason: the Service Register of the deceased was misplaced!

Allowing a writ petition moved by the widow, Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar has rapped the officials concerned and said the "unreasonable" delay in sanctioning the amount could not be taken lightly. He imposed a cost of Rs.3,000 on the Executive Engineer and the Assistant Engineer of the Department and ordered to pay the amount to the petitioner. The Judge also directed the officials to forthwith pay the arrears along with 12 per cent interest and to continue pay the monthly pension thereafter.

The deceased, P. Karuppiah, had joined the department in April 1960 and completed 16 years of service when he died of ill-health in March 1976. Immediately, his widow submitted a death certificate and legal heir certificate before the Executive Engineer, who sanctioned Rs.10,000 towards the funeral expenses. But when she sought the monthly pension and other monetary benefits, the officials could not find the dead man's service register. Finally, the Assistant Engineer wrote to Executive Engineer on March 4, 2003 asking him to reconstitute the register, which is yet to be done.

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