A surprising case has come to light from Kaushambi district of Uttar Pradesh. Where a 65 year old elderly man was declared dead. The old man kept stumbling from door to door for months to prove himself alive. Tired and exhausted, the old man reached the DM and presented evidence of his being alive, seeing this the DM was also surprised. After coming to the notice of the incident, DM ordered an investigation and said that responsibility will be fixed and strictest action will be taken.
65 year old Chandrapal, a resident of Saurai village of Sirathu tehsil, runs a small betel shop one kilometer away from the village. The old man was getting old age pension, with which he was able to survive. But Village Development Officer Vikas Sharma stopped Chandrapal’s pension by showing him dead. When the pension did not come for several months, he approached the elderly officer and gave proof of his being alive. But the allegation is that the Village Development Officer misbehaved with the old man and sent him away from the office.
Village development officer declared the living elderly dead
After this, elderly Chandrapal started making rounds of the officers’ offices. When the hearing did not take place, he reached District Magistrate Madhusudan Hulgi and narrated his ordeal. The DM took his complaint seriously and ordered an investigation. It is alleged that Village Development Officer Vikas Kumar declared Chandrapal dead without any proper investigation so that pension could be given to another person in his place by taking money.
Let us tell you that people taking old age pension have to give their survival certificate once a year. Verification has to be done on e-Mitra by taking biometric thumb and photograph. If the person taking pension does not follow these rules, then the pension branch employees go to the house of the concerned beneficiary. Let’s investigate whether he is alive or dead. If the person taking pension is deceased then his report is sent to the SDM office. After this, order to stop pension is issued from the SDM office. In such a situation, the question arises that, on whose advice and for what reason, Zinda Chandrapal was declared dead. DM has said that strict action will be taken after investigation.
DM ordered investigation
District Officer Madhusudan Hulgi said that an elderly beneficiary of Kadha block was getting pension but the papers showed him as deceased. Whoever is found guilty after investigation in this case, strict action will be taken. This is a wrong way to make government schemes reach the wrong people. Strict action will be taken in this.