The officials of the district administration reached an octogenarian man and handed over him pension for four months without which life was miserable for him.

As per information, Karunakar Bag (84) of Bishalkhinda village under Dhankauda block was getting old age pension regularly. But showing some plea or other, the officials of the Gram Panchayat had stopped his pension and he had to face a lot of hardship without it since he had no other source of income.

When the youths of the village came to know about the situation, they informed the new Collector about the plight of the man who instructed the block and Panchayat authorities to pay the old age pension without making any further delay. And at his instruction, the executive officer (EO) of the gram Panchayat went to the village of Karunakar and paid him Rs 2,800 towards four months’ pension. 

The villagers have expressed gratitude before Collector Dibya Jyoti Parida for taking the prompt action.

In another case, a good number of widows of the town met the Collector  recently to apprise him that some of the officials of the district are depriving them of widow pension for the last five to six months.

They said they had to move from banks to municipality office and also other related offices, but to no effect. Dali Kalet, Sakuntala Munda, Raibari Munda, Tulashi Munda, Sushama Sharma and many others met the Collector in his grievance cell and requested him to look into their case as they are unable to manage families without pension amount. “The Collector assured us of prompt action,” the women said.

It is a fact that many officials of the block and Gram Panchayat, in a planned manner, are swindling pension amounts of these poor people taking advantage of their simplicity, sources alleged.