War veteran’s family battles for pension

BENGALURU: Living almost in penury, the family of a World War II veteran has approached a trust working with ex-servicemen-related issues to get the late soldier’s pension benefits. For the record, Sapper Yengaiah never received pension during his lifetime and his widow Yashodamma, 89, too has not been getting the amount entitled. The dues, according to the family, run into Rs 3 lakh.
The trust, which took up the matter with the Pension Disbursing Authority (PDA), a leading bank, blames procedural lapse — either from the bank or from the treasury office for the anomaly which cost the WW II veteran’s family dearly.
“This is a case of clear victimisation of a widow of a World War II veteran, who is no more. Claiming that she is entitled for ex-gratia payment based on “irrelevant documents”, PDA has reduced the total monthly family pension to Rs 3,447 in October against the ordinary basic family pension of Rs 9,000 with DA and age-related additional pension @30 percent. It’s a big blow,” said VeKare Ex-Servicemen Trust president and retired senior non-commissioned officer of Indian Air Force Mandetira N Subramani told BM. Yengaiah, who had enrolled in the Army on September 5, 1943, worked for 15 years. When Yashodamma approached the trust, Subramani with the help of another retired officer, Gen Vombatkare (Rtd), took up the matter with MEG Centre. It was only then the huge anomaly came to light.
“SRO of MEG Records (NE/ Pen), after verifying the relevant records, said the deceased WW-II veteran Spr Yengaiah was originally sanctioned with service pension (PPO no: S/17658/59),” Subramani said.
However, the bank, according to the trust, kept paying ‘reservist family pension’ for a long time. “Now the bank is claiming that the widow has been sanctioned with ex-gratia family pension based on the application submitted by Yashodamma and some wrong entries made by the treasury office while transferring pension documents to the bank,” he said.
“PPO is the ultimate document to prove whether the widow is granted with ordinary family pension or reservist family pension or ex-gratia family pension. All of a sudden, her pension has been considered as ex-gratia wef January 1, 1992,” he said. Claiming that both the reservist pension and ex-gratia pension didn’t apply in case of Yashodamma, who has been entitled to ordinary family pension, the trust has taken up the case with the Army and the pension disbursing authority.