BERHAMPUR : An elderly woman of Ludru village in Gajapati’s Mohana has been deprived of her old age pension for the last six months after the block office marked her dead in its records.
Seventy-three-year-old Manika Nayak discovered the shocking error on Thursday after her son Milan visited Mohana block office and found his mother ‘dead’ in the documents.
Manika had opened an account in Canara bank at Chandragiri through which she used to get her old age pension every month. Her ordeal started in July last year when she found her monetary assistance cut-off. Unaware of the reason, she decided to visit the block office. As Manika is unable to walk due to old age, she took the help of some villagers and reached the office. She sought to know the reason behind the stoppage of her pension, but the authorities failed to give her any satisfactory reply.
For the next five months, she made trips to the block office with much difficulty, only to return dejected. Without the pension, Manika faced immense hardships in securing her basic sustenance and finally shifted to her son Milan’s house at Chandragiri. On January 19, Milan came to know about the stoppage of his mother’s pension and wrote to the social security wing of Mohana block office. On Thursday, he visited the office and discovered the serious error.
Milan said the authorities should take strict action against the officials who marked his mother ‘deceased’ in the documents and removed her name from the beneficiary list. Block development officer (BDO) of Mohana Haladhar Sabar said immediate steps will be taken to provide pension to Manika. He also assured to launch an investigation into the matter.