Tribals deprived of pension

MALDA, Nov. 27: Many tribals, above 60 years of age falling below the poverty line and who are entitled to receive pension amount of Rs 500 per month, have not been getting  their full pension amount on time. The funds meant for tribals’ pension are getting released either for three months at a time and at times after six months.

It has been reported that despite block officials releasing the pension to the tribal beneficiaries through money order for three or six months, the pension holders are not getting the exact amount released by the government officials.

“It has come to our notice that middlemen such as some panchayat leaders and some staff of some post offices dupe the tribal people and pay Rs 1,000 each when the block officials have released pensions for three months amounting to Rs 1,500 together,” said the Habibpur BDO, Mr Rajesh Kerketta, today.

The practice of cheating the tribal pension-holders has come to light following a survey by the Malda district administration. The Malda district magistrate, Mr Sridhar Ghosh, had instructed the survey after chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee expressed concern about the tribal population and inquired about the practice of witch-hunting during his recent visit in Malda.

According to the Habibpur BDO, the block development officer , gram panchayat officials are reluctant to make a fresh list of tribal pensioneers. “But the panchayat officials have not bothered to reply,” Mr Kerketta, said.

On the other hand, it was detected that some block post offices are reluctant to receive more than 100 money orders meant for tribal people as the offices were not equipped with iron chests. It is also alleged that in the rural belt, post office or sub-post office staff do not visit the beneficiaries’ house to deliver the pension. They call the beneficiaries through middlemen to their offices instead and make payments and at times not in full.

Experiencing such problems, the district administration is planning to open bank or post office accounts in the name of each pension holder so that middlemen cannot cheat the tribals at the time of payment.

“It is a serious complaint that tribal people are being deprived of their legitimate claims. We need to get a specific complaint in this regard. We must take action against the culprits,” said the Malda DM, Mr Ghosh.

Reacting to the situation, the state backward classes welfare minister Mr Jogesh Barman said over phone: “We have received complaints that middlemen were robbing the tribals of their legitimate claims. To end the corruption we have planned to open accounts in the name of pensioners so that the middlemen can be avoided. I have already spoken to post master general to open savings account for the beneficiaries.” SNS