In Kolhapur, pension scheme knew no rule

Indian Express: Mumbai: Tuesday, 23 December 2014.

Corruption in the form of pension schemes knew no bounds in Western Maharashtra’s sugar belt of Kolhapur. When The Indian Express visited villages in the district, there were glaring instances involving local politicians, government officials, village chiefs and private agents.

Dead but Alive

Kagal resident Shivaji Patil died on October 26, 2013. But on government records, Shivaji drew old-age pension even last month.

After first denying the fraud, Kagal’s Nayab Tahsildar Shivaji Gavai ordered a probe after The Indian Express confronted him with evidence.

Ironically, the state has launched a pilot project in Kagal in association with a leading bank where biometric thumb impressions are matched for disbursing pension grants.

Documents accessed through the RTI Act show that the first pension installment to Shivaji was released after he died. His application was processed only a month before his death. What’s more, Shivaji did not even meet the required criteria for a pension grant. A local panel, headed by an aide of former Maharashtra minister Hasan Mushrif, and comprising Tahsildar Shantaram Sangde as a member, however, granted his request.

Kagal’s medical superintendent B Gaikwad issued a certificate on August 17, 2012, claiming that Sutar’s age was 66 years, which was considered as a valid proof for his pension application processed a year later. But records maintained by Vidya Mandir, which was the school where Shivaji studied, show he was 57 years old when he died.

His pension application was cleared based on the claim that his mother Akkubai features in the 2002-03 Below the Poverty Line (BPL) list.

What was however kept under wraps was that Akkubai is now a Karnataka resident and that she does not stay with Shivaji’s family. Also hidden was the fact that Shivaji used to stay with his two sons, Pandit (in the photo) and Ravindra, both employed and earning salaries greater than the permissible limits for the family income as per norms. A two-wheeler stands parked outside their house, which Pandit later confirmed was his. The house has cable television and a sofa set. Pandit also confirmed that his family cultivated sugarcane on a 10-guntha plot of farm land.

The pension application of Shivaji’s wife Laxmi, which also referred to Akkubai’s name, was approved on the same day as Shivaji’s own application. Her age was shown as 66 at the time of application.

Dead woman’s pension for bogus beneficiary More intriguing is Dattatray Sutar’s  case, another bogus beneficiary residing in the same village, Malage Khurd.

Although his name does not feature in the BPL list, the gramsevak and the sarpanch issued a certificate claiming Sutar’s name featured at Serial No 79 in the BPL list. Suman Patil, a woman who died in

December 2012, is actually the name at Serial No. 79. “We haven’t availed any pension on her name since her death,” said Suman’s daughter-in-law Sangita, who seemed unaware that someone else from the same village was drawing pension using Suman’s name.

Malage Khurd’s sarpanch Reshma Sable, when contacted, said she did not recollect the individual case, but admitted that she might have signed a few dubious records under duress. A former Hasan Mushrif aide, Sable recently fell out with the former minister.

Sutar later admitted his name was not in the BPL list. While school’s records make it clear that Sutar turned 51 this year, the Murgud rural hospital in the region certified his age as 66 on September24, 2013. “He had produced a record showing he was born in 1947. Our certification is based on documents produced and visual examination. It cannot be accurate at all times,” medical superintendent S B Thorat said.

Sutar does not fit the income profile too. While his pension application and tahsildar’s report on his income profile claims that Sutar is a destitute and has no source of income, the farmer himself admitted owing a 6-guntha sugarcane farm. He also owns a bullock and has a television set in his house.

Corruption in the form of pension schemes knew no bounds in Western Maharashtra’s sugar belt of Kolhapur. When The Indian Express visited villages in the district, there were glaring instances involving local politicians, government officials, village chiefs and private agents.