NEW DELHI: Official apathy sometimes doesn’t spare even the families of those who lay down their lives for the country. A case in point is the decades-long struggle of the widow of ‘Shaurya Chakra’ awardee Mohan Singh, who had to wait for 26 years to get her rightful Special Family Pension — that too only after the Supreme Court’s intervention.Singh, an overseer with General Reserves Engineering Force, was in charge of construction of a key border road. On July 10, 2000, when a boulder from a hilltop rolled down with debris, he helped move workers from the site but could not get out of its way himself and was killed. The Centre posthumously conferred on him in 2001 the ‘Shaurya Chakra’ — the third-highest peacetime gallantry award.However, his widow received relief under Workmen’s Compensation Act and not the Special Family Pension under the CCS (Extraordinary Pension) Rules, to which she was entitled. It was rejected on the ground that since payment under Workmen’s Compensation Act had been made, no liberalised pensionary award was due to the deceased’s kin, as per CCS (Pension) rules.She moved Punjab and Haryana HC, which held she was entitled to extraordinary pension but restricted payment of arrears from date of the filing of petition, denying relief from the date of death of her husband. When the matter reached the SC, a bench of Justices K V Viswanathan and Arun Palli said the Centre had erred and should have categorised her case under the correct category ‘C’ of CCS Pension Rules and extended the benefit soon after Singh’s demise.
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“These are not matters where the family or the widow should be expected to go to the court to obtain relief,” SC said.AG R Venkataramani said Rs 14.28 lakh had been paid to the widow and pension will be processed as per HC order. Arrears, calculated at Rs 4.12 lakh, had also been released. SC said a consolidated amount of Rs 10 lakh be paid to her for the period between Singh’s death and HC order.
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