Govt staff receiving welfare pensions to face action
As the respective departments are tasked with acting against employees under them, the employees are likely to face only departmental action.
As the respective departments are tasked with acting against employees under them, the employees are likely to face only departmental action.
As the respective departments are tasked with acting against employees under them, the employees are likely to face only departmental action.
Thiruvananthapuram: The finance department has directed the respective government departments in Kerala to take action against employees who receive social welfare pensions after seeking their explanation.
Government employees were included in the list of welfare pension beneficiaries by manipulating the mustering process. The department suspects that forged documents were used for this purpose with the support of an official lobby.
The department, which considers government employees' availing of welfare pensions to be not only unethical but also a crime, has handed over the beneficiaries' names and posts to the respective departments. Finance department officials said that as the mustering of social welfare pension beneficiaries takes place every year, including government employees could not be considered an unintentional error.
However, it is pointed out that as the respective departments are tasked with acting against employees under them, the employees are likely to face only departmental action. This is because departments lack the powers to investigate whether the employees submitted forged documents to avail themselves of welfare pensions.
Such investigations could be carried out only by the police or vigilance. It was earlier reported that 1,458 government employees, including gazetted officers in the rank of assistant professors and higher secondary teachers, were illegally receiving the monthly social welfare pension of Rs 1,600 meant for destitute senior citizens, widows and differently-abled people.