Over 6000 retired school teachers have not received pension

Guwahati, Feb 11: Over 6,800 retired school teachers and panchayat workers have not received any pension in Assam, the state Assembly was informed today.

In a written reply during the Question Hour, Assam Pension and Public Grievances Minister Tanka Bahadur Rai said his department has a total of 6,846 unresolved cases.

Out of these, 6,679 cases belong to the Education department, while 167 are from the Panchayat department, he said. Replying to the question by BJP MLA Ranjit Kumar Das, Rai said "Different departments do not send the documents to the concerned persons for getting pension. There are even cases where papers are sent after 20-32 years of retirement."

Moreover, the number of staff in the pension department is very less, delaying the work further, he added. "As per the process, pension papers should be given on the day of retirement. However, the pension department has not been able to do that due to some technical difficulties," Rai said without specifying anything.

However, through an order in June 2012, the Pension and Public Grievances Department is giving a provisional pension to the non-beneficiaries till the cases are solved permanently, he added.

As of now, a total of 91,960 provincialised school teachers and panchayat people are getting full pension from the government.

PTI