Cruel pension joke

KOCHI: A tug of war between the district administration and the Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) is delaying the fast redressal of the complaints that came up before the Chief Minister’s Mass contact Programme. In a curious case, a couple of complaints, forwarded by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy for action, have gone ‘missing’ from the Local Self-Government Department. Though the LSGD officials are firm on their stance that they got only five petitions on pensions, the reports from the district collectorate say the LSGD has indeed got 15 petitions.District Collector P I Sheik Pareeth categorically ruled out the arguments by the LSGD. “We have carried out an internal probe. The LSGD has not come up with the exact number of petitions they got in the mass contact programme,” Pareeth said.During the recent review of the Mass Contact programme, the Chief Minister himself had pointed out the aberrations in implementing his recommendations. When the issue regarding the number of petitions on pensions cropped up, conflicting opinions given by the Social Welfare Department and LSGD drew flak from the Chief Minister. Chandy expressed utter disappointment over the lackadaisical attitude of the officials in resolving the complaints forwarded by him. When the LSGD official said they received only five pensions, the Chief Minister refuted it and asked the District Collector to prepare a list of missing applications which he himself had forwarded to the authorities. On enquiry, the district collectorate has found out that the LSGD has received 15 pensions pending on ‘Ashraya Kiran’ scheme. Of which, the Deputy Directorate of Panchayat (DDP) received eight applications, Thrikkakara municipality three, the Corporation and Aluva, Perumbavoor and Maradu municipalities one each. When asked S Latha, Deputy Director of Panchayat, completely refuted the statement. “We reiterate the fact that we got ‘only’ five petitions on pensions. We do not have any clue on how such a report came,” she said. An official with the Social Welfare department said such schemes are usually sanctioned by the LSGD.“Though we get such recommendations on pensions, we forward it to the LSGD,” he said. The officials with the district collectorate said the lack of awareness on the special scheme has also added to the confusion.