Threat to gherao Himachal CM over delayed pensions, arrears

The Pensioners Association of Kangra has threatened to gherao Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu over the delayed pensions and arrears. The pensioners association representatives said the government was delaying their pensions and not paying arrears. It was testing the tolerance of pensioners of the state.

Suresh Thakur, district president of Pensioners Welfare Association of Kangra, said the government has been paying their pension on 10th of the month for the last two months. This was unacceptable to them. “We are demanding from the government that it should pay pensions of pensioners on the first of every month as per the precedent earlier or else we would be forced to gherao the Chief Minister,” he said.

Thakur said a large numbers of pensioners are not being paid gratuity and leave encashment. The medical bills of pensioners worth crores have been lying pending for the past more than a year. The government was also not honouring the court orders regarding payment of arrears of the pensioners. Recently the High Court ordered the government to pay arrears to the pensioners. However, instead of paying the arrears the government has moved the Supreme Court, he said.

He alleged that 37,000 cases of payment of arrears, gratuity and leave encashment were pending in the office of Comptroller and Auditor General of the state.

Thakur said the state government was alleging that it was not able to pay pensions to them on time due to financial crisis in the state. If there was financial crisis in the state, the government should implement pension rule of MLAs and ministers on the Punjab pattern. The Punjab government has implemented the rule that MLAs would get only one pension. However, in Himachal, the MLAs were getting pensions for the number of terms served by them in the Himachal Assembly.

“If there was financial crisis in the state, the politicians should start austerity at home and reduce their pensions on pattern adopted by Punjab,” he said.