DEFENCE PENSIONERS AWARENESS MEET

DEFENCE PENSIONERS AWARENESS MEET

A Defence Pensioners Awareness Meet was arranged on 25.06.2009 in the Campus of the Assistant Director of Ex-servicemen Welfare office at Palayamkottai, Tirunelveli.

A total of 140 defence pensioners and defence family pensioners attended the meet. The pension documents of all those who attended the meeting was checked to find out whether all of them are being paid the correct rate of revised pension & arrears or not.

With the help of some dedicated retired ex-servicemen bank employees, a thorough scrutiny was made on 100 pension documents. It was shocking to notice that more than 50% of the pensioners were not paid the correct rate of pension for the past several years.

Some of the common mistakes that were noticed are as follows:-

1. Some family pensioners were paid ordinary family pension instead of Special family pension for more than 13 years.

2. The widows of JCOs were paid the pension of a Sepoy’s Widow.

3. 6^th CPC arrears were not paid to the widows whose husbands died during the period between 01.01.06 to 30.8.08.

4. Lot of delay was there is releasing the family pension even though there was a clear PPO in favour of the widow with the bank.

5. The LTA was not paid in many cases.

At the end of the day, the team worked out the correct pension and arrears to be paid to more than 11 pensioners and handed over with a suitable letter to the Banks for immediate payment. For the remaining pensioners, we have requested them to come after few days.

The Assistant Director of Ex-servicemen Welfare, Tirunelveli District Major.Va.Sree.Jayakumar (Retd.) addressed the pensioners. The lecture was in a simple Tamil and it was highly informative to even well informed persons. The initiative taken by the Assistant Director, the Support rendered by the Tirunelveli Ex-servicemen Canteen Manager and the sincere work done by some retired ex-servicemen bank employees were highly appreciated by all.

The following pensioners were given complete working sheet with a letter to the bank for immediate payment.

Name of the pensioner. Name of the Bank & Branch Amount of Arrears.

1. Smt.E.Subbammal, IOB, Maharajanagar, Tirunelveli-11. Rs.3,71,503.00

W/O Late.Nk.Esakki.

(Special Family Pension)

2. Smt.Dhanalakshmi, SBI, Kovilpatti. Rs. 47,539.00

W/O(Late)Hav.

Thiagarajan.

(Special Family Pension)

3. Smt.Greecy Durairajan, Canara Bank, Shenkottai. Rs. 42,694.00

W/O(Late) Hon.Capt.

Durairajan.

4. Smt.S.Bhagyalakshmi Indian Bank, Kovilpatti. Rs.1,46,148.00

W/O (Late) Hav.

Sundarraj.

(Special Family Pension)

5. Smt.Thangathai, Indian Bank, Tenkasi Rs. 56,896.00

W/O (Late) Sub.

S.Krishnan

6. Smt. Maria Selvi Canara Bank, Arumuganeri Rs. 18,243.00

W/O (Late) Nk.

Kennedy Samuel

7. Smt.N.Saraswathi Ammal Canara Bank, Tirunelveli Jn. Rs.2,67,084.00

W/O (Late) Sub.

Narayanasamy Naidu

(Special Family Pension)

8. Hon.Fg.Offr.Anthony Muthu IOB, Vallnadu

Rs. 67,603.00

9. Smt.Balamurugan, SBI, Nanguneri Rs.. 86,710.00

W/O (Late) Hon.Sub.Lt.

Murugan

10.Smt.S.Sujatha SBI, Arumanai. Rs. 55,418.00

W/O (Late) Nk.

Vikramannair

(Special Family Pension)

11.Smt.Rajeswari, SBI Tirumangalam Rs. 55,418.00

W/O (Late)

Sukumaran _____________

Total arrears amount worked out to be paid -- Rs.12,15,256.00

Comment: Tirunelveli is a non-military station in Tamilnadu with a ex-servicemen population of around 10,000. Such a small pensioners meeting could detect a short payment of Rs.12,15,256 out 100 sample pensioners, then what will be the amount of short payment if we verify all the 10,000 pensioners, the amount will run into crores.

Therefore the immediate need of the hour is educating our pensioners is of paramount importance.