CUTTACK: Belated though, relief by way of provisional pension with arrears of 26 years will finally be received by a 89-yearold widow after Orissa High Court’s intervention on her contempt plea. The single judge bench of Justice V Narasingh directed the State transport authorities on Monday to pay the arrear with effect from 1996 as well as the current provisional pension to Lalita Mohanty at her place of residence by September 19.
Mohanty is presently staying with her son at Manjur Road in Keonjhar district. Justice Narasingh issued the order after chairman-cummanaging director Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) Diptesh Kumar Pattanayak appeared in person and assured the court that steps shall be taken to pay provisional pension to the petitioner.
Provisional pension has been granted in favour of the widow with effect from January 1, 1996, the state counsel SN Pattnaik submitted. While issuing the orders, Justice Narasingh said, “It is indeed unfortunate that an old widow aged about 89 years is still struggling to get family pension, even after a lapse of almost more than nineand- half years from the time the order was passed.”
Mohanty had filed a petition in the High Court in 2009 when she was denied family pension after her husband Bhimsen Mohanty’s death. Mohanty was a traffic inspector of OSRTC at Baripada when he died on July 13, 1970. The HC allowed her petition on April 15, 2013 and directed that she is entitled to get family pension as her husband was in service on December 12, 1963, when the provision of Family Pens i on Scheme wa s available.
The woman filed the contempt petition on December 16, 2013 when the HC order was not implemented. Justice Narasingh felt that the April 15, 2013 order had attained finality as a review petition filed by State government on it was dismissed by the HC on August 30, 2019. He has fixed September 21 for further consideration of the matter and directed the authorities to file compliance by then.