He's spent 52 years fighting for pension

belgaum: "instead of dying in hunger and poverty, it is better that i end my life resorting to a hunger strike in front of a government office", says siddappa gobari of ramdurg in belgaum district. usually, a government servant retires from service at 58. however, siddappa has spent 52 years knocking the doors of karnataka and maharastra for pension, which has become an unending story.in the evening of his life, the 81-year-old life has lost all hopes, but has decided to fight it out by staging a hunger strike if the karnataka government fails to release the pension within a month. the reorganisation of states in 1949 made retirement from service inevitable for gobari. he was working for thorgal principality, which was with the then kolhapur state. now kolhapur is part of maharastra. though no one disputes the fact that gobari is eligible for pensionery benefits, the problem is: which government should release the pension. whether it is maharastra or karnataka. after 1956, kolhapur went to maharastra and thorgal remained with karnataka. as thorgal was with kolhapur state till the reorganisation of states, karnataka government has rightly shifted the responsibility of releasing the pension to maharastra. and, in a judgement delivered by the apex court against a writ petition ( no.6802-82) (rukmini amma vs tamilnadu), the court has said that a government servant is eligible for pension from that state for which he was working and after the reorganisation of states it will be the responsibility of the state in which the earlier smaller state becomes a part. "in my case, it is maharastra", says gobari. however, the pleas of gobari was never heard by maharastra, which in a letter dated 12th december 1991, though has said that gobari was a permanent government employee did not agree to sanction the monthly pension. "as thorgal was in mysore state, he is not eligible for such benefit from maharastra government", the letter stated. undeterred, gobari once again petitioned karnataka in may 1993 to take up his case. the response was the same from maharastra that thorgal was with mysore state. in 1997, the deputy commissioner of belgaum district wrote a letter to the accountant general of maharastra with recommendation that gobari retired from service before the reorganisation of states. what made gobari to decide to go on strike is the reluctance of maharastra to sanction monthly pension when the district collector of kolhapur in a letter (february 2000) has said that gobari is eligible for pension from maharastra from january 1996. the dc has made it clear that in a similar case one d.dattatreya atmaram khopde is enjoying pensionery benefits from maharastra. gobari wanted to know which will end first. his life or the long fight for pension.