Senior citizens suffer as polls delay pension

MUMBAI:If some state government pensioners in the city haven't received their pensionyet, they have the recent Lok Sabha elections to blame for the delay. Accordingto Sunil Joshi, president of the Greater Mumbai State Employees' Federation,nearly 70% of the pay and accounts office staff had been requisitioned forelection duty. While a senior state government official assures thatthe payment was finally despatched last Friday by ECS--and that every pensionerwould get it latest by Tuesday--the delay has caused unnecessary hardship topensioners.Currently, there are total of 5.5 lakh state governmentpensioners in Maharashtra, says Joshi, of which about a lakh are in Mumbaialone.A 65-year-old, who visited his bank three times last week,says, "I suspect the delay is due to the elections, which is a valid reason. Butsome of my friends run their homes with the pension, what aboutthem?''His 62-year-old friend complains that he spent Rs 50 onrickshaw to visit his bank but hasn't received the pension yet. Another61-year-old adds, "Of course, we depend on it, but we have to manage.''Fortunately, he received his pension on Monday--it was 11 days late.This, despite the December 2008 Bombay high court ruling thatpensions must be paid within the first week of the month. In the judgment,Justice D Y Chandrachud had said, "Deprive a pensioner of the payment and youdeprive him or her of the right to life. Delayed pensionary payments place apensioner in a position of uncertainty and dependence which impinges on thequality of life under Article 21, and the right to dignified existence of theaged.''