RTI plea unlocks pension pending for five years

The relevant section entitles the applicant to receive information concerning the life or liberty of a person within 48 hours of the receipt of the application. Having retired in July 2004,Muneer-uddin had been running from pillar to post since for his pension.

Repeated applications,daily visits to the office of Employees Provident Fund and meetings with higher-ups including Commissioner (Pension) ended only in promises.

“Every time I visited them,they would inform me that the application is pending due to some technical lapses and matter would be sorted out soon,” said Muneer-uddin. “When I came to know that they have kept my pension pending on a flimsy ground that my father’s name was not same in the service book and my pension application,I filed an application under RTI’s Section 7(1) and asked them to furnish me the details of grounds on which my application had been pending.”

He requested the department to allow him to inspect his own file and find out the anomalies in his application. Simultaneously,another RTI application was also filed seeking records of pension applications pending with the Central Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation.

Following his first plea filed on September 4,instead of permitting him to access records,the department preferred to clear his pension.

“After almost two weeks,I got a call that my pension has been cleared and I should check my bank account,” said Muneer-uddin. On October 12,the department issued him a letter permitting him to get his records examined.

Muneer-uddin now wants to take the fight forward. “I would like to get to know the details of other pending applications and see if other people like me are not made to suffer,” he added.