RTI Act helps retd teacher get pensionary benefits of deceased husband

Tirupati: The power of 'Right to Information Act' (RTI) helped a retired school teacher A Padmavathi in Srikalahasti to get all pensionary benefits of her deceased husband after a long battle.

With the help of one RTI activist and another retired teacher G Sudhakar, she has exposed the negligence of the government officials in tracing the service register (SR) of her late husband before the RTI Commissioner.

Finally, she succeeded with determination and showed the path to many others in exposing the government's apathy and inaction.

Padmavathi's husband D Madan Mohan has worked as senior assistant in Nindra PHC of the erstwhile Chittoor district.

He died in March 2004 following which his wife, a secondary grade teacher in Srikalahasti, was sanctioned family pension as per 1998 PRC.

Though the 2005 PRC was implemented with retrospective effect from July 2003, it was not implemented in this case.

When it was known to her that she has to get the dearness relief (DR) along with the family pension from June 2014 but not getting it, she approached the officials to claim it. She was asked to bring the SR of her husband. The representations to the district officials of the medical and health department in this regard did not evoke any response.

Padmavathi was upset at this and took up the help of RTI activist Sudhakar to file a petition before the RTI Commissioner in 2019 with case number 923.

After hearing, the RTI Commissioner has directed the official concerned of the medical and health department to provide duplicate SR after it was known that the original SR was not traced.

After this, the medical officer concerned has issued the duplicate SR of Madan Mohan to his wife in October 2021. Based on that, she claimed revised family pensions based on 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2022 PRCs recommendations and got more than Rs 6 lakh arrears.

Further, she could get the DR also based on the 2015 PRC. All these have resulted in a net increase of over Rs 4,000 monthly family pension of Padmavathi.

RTI activist Sudhakar said that, RTI Act is a powerful tool through which common people can fight for justice. With awareness of the RTI Act, pending issues can be resolved.