Chandigarh, August 12
Hundreds of retired Central Government employees living in Chandigarh find themselves at risk of being denied benefits under a Central Government-run health scheme, due to an oversight or wrong interpretation of rules.
Health cards of 69 pensioners of the Posts and Telegraph (P&T) department under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) have been cancelled in the light of an order of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare dated August 1, 1996.
This letter was applicable to those stations only where the CGHS facility existed before the retirement of beneficiaries. These orders were not applicable to the Chandigarh area because there was never a P&T dispensary or a government health scheme for the P&T employees before 2002 when the CGHS scheme was introduced here, alleged the president of the P&T Pensioners Welfare Association, Mr Rajpal Sharma.
He said the cancellation of cards was violative of a government order. Quoting the orders he said, “Retirees from the P&T Department are eligible for availing themselves of this facility as all Central Government pensioners (except the Railways pensioners and armed forces pensioners) are eligible for the same after retirement. The scheme is also applicable to the Central Government employees who retired with contributory provident fund benefits. Similarly, families of the Central Government employees in receipt of family pension are also eligible to avail themselves of these facilities, if the deceased government servant was eligible for these.”
The association said this was a case of wrong interpretation of rules by the Directorate of Health depriving elderly persons of the facility who retired from the P&T Department. As their CGHS cards have been cancelled, the monthly medical allowance of Rs 100 stands stopped.
