Govt fails to complete probe in 35 yrs, official retires & dies

KIN DENIED PENSION

Govt fails to complete probe in 35 yrs, official retires & dies

Ankur.Sirothia@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:  04.10.2020

In a classic case of administrative negligence, the state government failed to complete a departmental inquiry against a senior officer of the rank of superintending engineer for 35 years, who retired in 1991and later died in 2019. He died with getting his full pension benefits and after his death too, the family is denied of it.

The official got a partial pension for 28 years after his retirement till he died last year. Now, his wife is dependent on his interim pension.

As per rule, any inquiry against a person is closed once he is no more. When the deceased official’s son-in-law contacted the public works department where the official was posted, to learn about the status of inquiry, it came to light that there was no progress.

Surprisingly, the department could not even locate the inquiry file. The matter was taken up with the senior officials in secretariat who assured the family an early solution.

Gajendra Nath Chhokar retired as superintending engineer of the public works department in 1991 and he died in August last year. Chhokar’s wife, Santosh Chhokar, 75, is getting a partial pension due to the inquiry that has remained incomplete for 35 years.

Chhokar’s son in-law, Dr Rajiv Dang, who is a practicing physician settled in Indore, is pursuing the matter after his father-in-law’s death. After running from pillar to post for the past one year and making several visits to the state capital, he has been told that matter would be resolved soon. “I hope the issue gets addressed soon”, he told TOI.

It came to light that the head of department, public works department at Arera Hills wrote at least 15 letters to the PWD department in the secretariat, but it could not help in solving the matter.

PWD deputy secretary Niyaz Ahmed Khan said the issue has been brought into the notice of the government and it would be resolved soon.

The family of the deceased official pointed that the government must take up such issues seriously so that dependents of the ones, who served the government for long, should not suffer due to negligence of government machinery.