The city Corporation is unable to send welfare pensions to more than 500 beneficiaries, as their accounts with the State Bank of India (SBI) have become invalid owing to reasons including non-activity for prolonged periods, according to Corporation authorities.
In a council meeting held on Monday, the local body sought the intervention of the government to solve the issues regarding account holders who used the account to receive welfare pension or honorarium.
Resolution
The resolution on the issue of accounts was moved by LDF councillor Palayam Rajan.
The Corporation’s office account was with the State Bank of Travancore (SBT). So, a majority of the welfare pension beneficiaries started their zero balance accounts with the SBT.
However, with the merging of the SBT with the SBI, the new rules regarding minimum balance and period of inactivity had become applicable to these accounts too, he said.
“In the municipal Corporation limits, the account must have a minimum amount of ₹3,000, and a fine will be imposed if it is not maintained. If the account remains inactive for more than one year, the account will be frozen. There have been cases where new applicants had to wait for more than one year to start getting pensions. They have been affected. They are anyway getting only a small amount as pension. So, it is unfair to deduct money for not maintaining balance,” Mr. Rajan said.
Tiff
The tiff between the LDF constituents CPI(M) and the CPI spilled over into the Corporation with CPI councillor Solomon Vettukad raising some probing questions regarding the influence of middlemen in the Corporation office.
He said common people who frequented the office for getting a TC number or for similar purposes had at times to depend on these corrupt middlemen.
Split into two
He suggested that the town planning and engineering departments needed to be split into two.
The CPI councillor’s criticisms became fodder for the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, with its councillor M.R. Gopan saying that even members of the ruling combine had lost trust in how the Corporation was being run.
LDF councillor Palayam Rajan salvaged the situation for the ruling party by saying that 98% of the employees were trustworthy and followed the orders of the Mayor by the book. The Corporation council had the responsibility of making the rest of the 2% prompt in their work too, he said.
