IMPHAL: Sounds bizarre, but it is true. An employee of the electricity department in Manipur who passed away 22 years ago has been getting his salary and pension, while a 12-year-old boy has already retired from a government job.
The two incidents have exposed widespread fraud in appointments and disbursal of pension in the Manipur government.
Ningthemjao was an assistant lineman in the electricity department working since 1971 and died June 21, 1985 due to illness.
"It was sometime in 2004 that we sent an application to the electricity department to find out about my father's pension papers when one of his friends enquired about it. Then we started to investigate and could not make much headway," Ningthemjao's son Rishikanta said.
The reason cited for the long delay in seeking pension details was that his mother was illiterate and he was too young then to know about government procedures.
Ningthemjao's wife L. Tombi in July this year filed a complaint with the state chief information commissioner for service-related documents.
Documents provided by the chief engineer of the department following the complaint revealed that Ningthemjao was shown as being promoted as lineman on Jan 16, 1998, thirteen years after he died. The documents also showed him as drawing pension since Aug 31, 2001, sixteen years after his death.
"Somebody was withdrawing my father's salary and later the pension amount regularly after providing false documents," Rishikanta said.
The family is now contemplating filing a criminal case against the electricity department for the anomalies.
In another weird incident, a 12-year-old tribal boy in Tamenglong district of Manipur has been officially recorded as retiring from government service five years after he was born.
According to the service book, the boy was shown as joining the job on July 6, 1995 - the day he was born and taking voluntary retirement on July 31, 2005. He has since then been shown drawing his pension regularly.
The name of the boy has been withheld by the Accountant-General's office. An inquiry has been ordered.
The Accountant-General's office is also looking at certain other bizarre cases of fraudulent pensions, including that of a 100-year-old man officially recorded as being alive and drawing his pension. The man could not be located for verification and locals say he was long dead.
