THE PLIGHT OF DEFENCE FAMILY PENSIONER

SMT.ANDAL.

THE PLIGHT OF A DEFENCE FAMILY PENSIONER

Smt.Andal, wife of (Late) Subedar T.P.Durairaj, was sanctioned Special Family Pension from 1972.  The Indian Bank, Erode Main branch (Tamil Nadu) as usual was paying Ordinary Family Pension of a Sepoy from beginning.  After the year 1972, the pension of all the government pensioners had undergone 3 revisions.  But the bank continued to pay whatever they feel like, disregarding various recommendations of the pay commissions.  Because, the widow is unaware of the changes in her pension and the bank does not bother about the family pensioners.

In this case, the following officials responsible for payment and verification of correct pension to all the pensioners have failed to do their duties for the past 39 years.

1.      The Manager,  Indian Bank, Erode Main Branch, Tamil Nadu.

2.      The Chief Officer i/c for Govt. Transactions at Indian Bank Head Office at Chennai.

3.      The various Inspection and Audit officials for the pension payment.

4.      The Defence Pension Adalat Officer, who conducted the recent Bengaluru Adalat in August, 2010.

5.      The OIC Armoured Core Records (Secunderabad).

The volume of correspondence with the above officials shows that none of them take up the matter as a serious lapse and none of them bothered about the plight of the poor aged widow.

The Adalat Officer is unable to identify from the PPO and other documents about the Group of the deceased pensioner and the eligibility of SFP.  So he simply writes a letter to AOC records (Secunderabad) and disowns his responsibility and closes the file.

The AOC Record Officer (Secunderabad) misguides everybody by stating the rate of SFP to the wife of a SUB Gp.’B’ as Rs.7000/- instead of Rs.7825/-

The PDA, Indian Bank, Erode Main Branch Tamil Nadu, which is fully responsible for all these lapses, simply drafts letters by Senior Bank Officials for some simple clarifications to CDA(P) Allahabad and Record Office and keeps everything pending in spite of giving all the details about the eligibility of higher pension to the widow (By sending copies of all the circulars, calculation sheets everything to the bank) the bank continues to pay incorrect pension to the widow.

Till today, the Bank had not realized their mistake.  The Exwel Trust even reminded about the obligation of the bank to pay compensation for such a delay in payment.  Still the bank is not responding.

The attitude of the above officials is the main cause of many litigations.  The poor pensioner is now forced to approach the Tribunal at Chennai for justice.