No funds, medical bills worth crores pending

Our Correspondent

Fazilka, March 30

A large number of pensioners and employees have not been reimbursed their medical bills worth crores of rupees for the last so many years in Fazilka district.

Information sought under the RTI Act revealed that pensioners and employees had not been reimbursed their medical bills to the tune of Rs 2.47 crore approved by the office of the District Education Officer (Primary) from 2008 to 2014, out of which the department is liable to pay Rs 88 lakh to pensioners and Rs 1.59 crore to employees.

Similarly, medical bills of pensioners and employees of over Rs 2 crore have been lying pending since long, which too have been sanctioned by the District Education Officer (Secondary).

However, due to “non-availability” of funds with the Punjab government, the bills are yet to be cleared. As a result of which the employees have been running from pillar to post to get the payment. “All the bills have been sanctioned which are awaiting funds,” said District Education Officer (Secondary) SS Bal.

Om Parkash Sharma, general secretary of the Fazilka unit of the Punjab Government Pensioners Association, demanded immediate release of the payment of pending medical bills failing which he said the association would launch an agitation.

The other aspect of the problem is that even after four years of granting district headquarters status to Fazilka, the Education Department has not granted drawing and disbursing powers to district education officers, Fazilka (Secondary and Primary), which has multiplied the problems of employees and pensioners. They have to visit Ferozepur after covering a distance of about 150 km for the purpose of medical bills.