BHUBANESWAR: The BJP on Wednesday came down heavily on the State government for directing pensioners of the State-run universities to personally appear before the Controller of Finance by March 25.
After taking over the management of all State-run universities, the government is now trying to harass the retired teachers and the staff, BJP state general secretary Lekhashree Samantsinghar told a media conference.
Condemning the action of the government, she questioned the basis of the directive, threatening the pensioners of these universities to stop their pension if they failed to personally appear before the Controller of Finance before March 25.
She said pension is the fundamental right of a retired public servant. Retired government employees will have deposit their life certificate in the bank every year as a proof that they are alive to receive their pension.
“There is no such rule for physical appearance of any pensioner. This is unconstitutional, illegal and inhuman,” she said
The BJP leader said the government directive for personal appearance of pensioners during the Covid-19 pandemic is utterly deplorable.
She asked for immediate rollback of the directive.Reacting to the criticism, BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said the allegations are completely false and baseless.
It is mandatory for pensioners to submit the life certificate with the disbursing authority and there is a digital platform where the pensioners can verify their document instead of personal appearance, he clarified.
This apart, there is no instruction to stop the pension of retired teachers and staff till completion of the verification process, he said.