Dead man drawing salary for 16 years at electricity dept!

[ganpat1956]

The Imphal Free Press

IMPHAL, Aug 22: A dead man was found drawing salary in the electricity department as assistant lineman sixteen years after his death.

This faux pass came to light when L Tombi and L Rishikanta, wife and son of late L Ningthemjao of Kiyam Siphai, filed a complaint with the state chief information commissioner for service-related documents of Ningthemjao from the electricity department under the Right to Information Act on July 7, 2007.

As told by Rishikanta at a press conference held today at the office of Human Rights Law Network, his father was serving as an assistant lineman with the electricity department from January 21, 1971. Later, on August 18, 1984, he joined as work charge. However, Rishikanta said, his father died on June 21, 1985 due to illness. He said that the representatives from the office employee union came for his shradha and provided monetary help.

Rishikanta said that since he was very young and his mother was also illiterate, they did not have any idea about pension and other benefits procedures. He said, “It was only in 2004 that we sent an application to the electricity department to find out about my father’s pension when one of his friends enquired about it. Then we started to investigate and could not make much headway.”

M Rakesh, state coordinator HRLN, said that after Rishikanta approached for help, he sent a legal notice to the chief engineer of the electricity department on January 17, 2007 on behalf of Tombi inquiring about the pension benefits of late Ningthemjao.

Not being able to make much progress, two applications were sent by Tombi and Rishikanta under RTI to the electricity department. After 30 days lapsed with no action forthcoming, on July 7, 2007, the state information commission was approached.

Thereafter, the state information commission directed the chief engineer of the electricity department to furnish the relevant service documents of Ningthemjao. In the service documents provided by the electricity department, it was found that Ningthemjao was promoted as lineman on January 16, 1998, thirteen years after his death, by the then chief engineer. Thereafter he retired on superannuation on August 31, 2001, more than 16 years after his death.

Apart from having somebody withdrawing Ningthemjao’s salary for the past 16 years, Rakesh said that there were various false documentations. As per the family’s version, at the time of his death Ningthemjao was serving with the Thoubal electricity division whereas the official document mentioned that he was last serving with the Imphal Electrical Division No. 3, Lamphelpat.

Rakesh said that a criminal case will be taken up at the earliest against the electricity department and the High Court will be approached to provide relief to the aggrieved family.

Dead man drawing salary for 16 years at electricity dept! :: KanglaOnline ~ Your Gateway