Maharashtra to devise scheme for freedom fighters’ pension

MUMBAI, July 20: The Bombay High Court has ordered the Maharashtra government to devise a scheme whereby monthly pension is deposited direc...

MUMBAI, July 20: The Bombay High Court has ordered the Maharashtra government to devise a scheme whereby monthly pension is deposited directly in the bank accounts of freedom fighters.

The division bench of Justice A V Sawant and J A Patil took the decision “in order to save the aged freedom fighters from numerous visits to the District Collectorate.” The government has been asked to submit a report on the new scheme on August 14, on the eve of Independence Day. Meanwhile, freedom fighters will be asked to open bank accounts near their residences. The judges came down heavily on the “insincere

attitude of Mantralaya officials who have delayed pension for so many years and harassed freedom fighters in the 50th year ofIndependence.”

The ruling came in the wake of the hearing of a petition filed by freedom fighter Kashinath T Pardeshi. Apart from the current monthly pension of Rs 1,000, the court has ordered the government to pay Rs 96,000 by way of arrears for the last eight years and Rs 5,000 as costs of the petition to Parseshi.

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Pardeshi, 70, a Pandharpur resident, had participated in the 1942 Quit India Movement. He, along with 200 others, applied for pension in 1989 after the government announced the Swatantrya Sainik Gaurav Pension. The government rejected the application, stating it was received after the cut-off date.

The applicants moved the High Court. However, the court directed the government to decide on the applications within three months’ time. The government then called for fresh applications. Thereafter, a list of pension claimants was prepared. However, Pardeshi was intimated about the rejection of the application in January 1997.