No pension, ‘dead’ woman moves Lokpal

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 22

Dead men tell no tales! The “living dead” do! In a bizarre case, a “dead” woman has approached the Punjab Lokpal with a complaint against the cessation of pension to her after she was declared deceased in the papers.

The woman has also placed the Pension Officer and the Deputy Commissioner’s office in the dock for not acting on her repeated requests for restoration of pension. Taking up the plea filed by the 80-year-old widow, Punjab Lokpal Justice Satish Kumar Mittal has called for a factual report from Gurdaspur DC and the BDPOin an attempt to confirm the allegations contained in the complaint.

Directing the forwarding of the complaint and the order’s copy to the officers, Justice Mittal has fixed December 12 as the next date of hearing in the matter, awaiting the fact-finding report.

The complainant, Pritam Kaur of Bakhtpur village in Gurdaspur district, had alleged that she was getting widow pension regularly. But she was declared dead and her pension stopped at the instance of Baljit Singh, sarpanch, Bakhtpur village.

The Lokpal was also told that the complainant made repeated requests for restoration of her widow pension. In fact, requests were made to the Pension Officer as well as the office of Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner. But no action was initiated on the basis of her requests, compelling her to move the forum of Lokpal.

The complaint is out of the ordinary also because cases of dead men receiving pension after being shown alive is not uncommon. This is, perhaps, the first time that a woman has alleged the stoppage of pension after being declared dead and that too at the instance of a sarpanch.