Widow pension row leaves Gaya councillor ‘dead’ on records, alive in office

Gaya: Two versions of the denial of widow pension to Shila Devi, councillor of Ward no. 34 of the Gaya Municipal Corporation (GMC) have confounded the confusion about the status —ghost or alive—of the woman.Whereas Shila Devi alleges that her widow pension was being denied to her on the alibi that she has been declared “dead”, the Gaya Sadar BDO Rakesh Kumar attributed it to fault correction as she was wrongly getting two pensions—widow as well as old age—against her entitlement to just one.Whichever version is true, the official machinery is shown in extremely poor light as payment of double pension is as embarrassing as imputing “death” to a living human being.Shila Devi, councillor of ward number 34 of the GMC, was elected in 2022. She has been actively participating in public activities of the town and functioning as one of the 52 ward councillors. Suddenly, she has now found a “ghost identity” and though she does not figure in the official list of the dead, some other documents put a question mark over her physical existence.According to her, she lost her husband about two decades ago and since then she has been receiving the widow pension under the social security scheme of the state govt.Earlier she was getting Rs 400 per month as widow pension. There was a nearly 300% hike in the amount, just ahead of the last assembly election, and she received Rs 1,100 as the pension for Nov 2025.As per rules, there is to be an yearly update of her personal details to retain her entitlement to the pension. But as she applied for the e-KYC (Electronic know your customer), the system rejected her claim on the ground that she was no longer “alive” and the “dead” were not entitled to any social security benefits.The ward councillor’s son Om Yadav, who is believed to do proxy for her (husbands and sons, in many cases handle the affairs of their family members elected to positions reserved for women) said that he simply did not know how to inject life into her “allegedly dead” mother. Some careless or mischief-making block officials must have done it, alleged Om Yadav.Gaya Sadar BDO said whereas Shila Devi was entitled to only one pension, she inadvertently got a second pension (old age) sanctioned in 2016. As the anomaly has now been detected, her pension as a widow has been withdrawn. Asked whether the excess payment made to her during the last nine years would be realised from her, the BDO said whatever was required as per rules would be done.