Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Indian Bureaucracy Makes Veteran Widow Crazy

Britain Honours WWII Veteran in India

The President Of India Intervenes In NRI Widow Pension Case.
I helped Mrs Pritam Kaur Basi, widow of late Major Paramjit Singh Basi, who put his life on the line in World War II along with me, in her fight for widow pension from the Indian Pension Authorities. I personally conducted sustained and vigorous correspondence with various Indian Pension Authorities on her behalf to enable the aged blind, sickly-looking lady get her pension. Regretfully, the case was not moving for years. Hence, I wrote personal letters to many retired and serving Officers friends, requesting to help the lady. Despite my best efforts, it took the lady 14 long years to get her pension in her bank account in India.

I, having got totally disappointed and disgusted with 14 years delay in Mrs Basi’s pension case, could not help writing about it to the President of India and Supreme Commander of Indian Armed forces, giving comprehensive details of the case and expressing great concern with the manner in which the widow of World War Veteran was neglected by Indian Pension Authorities. I also enclosed with my letter, a copy of my detailed article on the subject published in the Link Newspaper for information. I was delighted to receive an email dated June 26, 2003 from Mrs Padmaja, Under Secretary (NRI-I) to the President of India, Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. Its contents are as follows:-

“Please refer to your letter dated April 30, 2003 addressed to the President of India regarding the Pension case of Mrs Pritam Kaur Basi. To enable us to coordinate with the Controller General of Defence Accounts, will you please send us the relevant details of the Pension case including copies of the correspondence made by Mrs Basi with concerned authorities.”

Responding to the above email, I compiled a comprehensive and detailed case of Mrs Basi’s Pension consisting of 107 sheets, bound them properly in a binder. The binder was forwarded to the President of India, through the Diplomatic Bag of the Consulate General of India, Vancouver on July 16, 2003.

Mrs Basi’s World war II Veteran husband Major Paramjit Singh Basi died in Canada on March 25, 1989. She submitted her application for family pension which was sanctioned vide CDA (P) PPO No M/F/F/89, in seven months. She was directed to report to the Manager of the Bank of India Jalandhar with her Pension Book to receive her first pension.

As bad luck would have it, Mrs Basi’s health took a turn for the worst and she was declared medically Blind, amongst many other complications, and was in no way fit to travel to India. As such, she requested her Banker viz the Bank of India , Jalandhar to credit her pension including arrears to her saving Bank account on extreme compassionate grounds. The Banker refused to budge. All her further pleas were ignored.

Being demoralized and disgusted, Mrs Basi wrote letters giving details of her ill health and an unending delay in her pension to all conceivable related authorities for help in getting her pension. It was only after excessive pressure exerted by the higher-ups on her Banker that he acted. Even then, it took her no less than 14 years to get her pension deposited into her bank account.

Having personally handled the entire pension case of Mrs Basi, I brought the most inordinate delay of 14 years to the notice of the President of India. I requested him that the culprits responsible for the delay in this particular case be awarded maximum penalties, and necessary orders be issued to all authorities so that no widow suffers this type of loss and pain as Mrs Basi did.

Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal (Retd) World war II Veteran
Founder President Indian Ex-Servicemen Society British Columbia

Comment: The Bureaucrats responsible for the delay are accountable to no one except God. May God help the bureaucarcy to see light! Contrast this with how British honour the Veterans in India. The Photocopy of news item shown above is the proof.

No comments:

Disclaimer

The contents posted on these Blogs are personal reflections of the Bloggers and do not reflect the views of the "Report My Signal- Blog" Team.
Neither the "Report my Signal -Blogs" nor the individual authors of any material on these Blogs accept responsibility for any loss or damage caused (including through negligence), which anyone may directly or indirectly suffer arising out of use of or reliance on information contained in or accessed through these Blogs.
This is not an official Blog site. This forum is run by team of ex- Corps of Signals, Indian Army, Veterans for social networking of Indian Defence Veterans. It is not affiliated to or officially recognized by the MoD or the AHQ, Director General of Signals or Government/ State.
The Report My Signal Forum will endeavor to edit/ delete any material which is considered offensive, undesirable and or impinging on national security. The Blog Team is very conscious of potentially questionable content. However, where a content is posted and between posting and removal from the blog in such cases, the act does not reflect either the condoning or endorsing of said material by the Team.
Blog Moderator: Lt Col James Kanagaraj (Retd)

Resources