IMPHAL September 12: The High Court of Manipur has directed Imphal Municipal Corporation (IMC) to divert the salary of IMC chairman, councillors and other Class I officers and clear the pending dues of its pensioners.
A court order dated August 28, 2015 which is cited by the pensioners`™ association as the third directive from the same office reads, `In spite of several orders passed by this court, petitioners have not been paid their pensions regularly and huge arrear is yet to be cleared.`
`IMC has not come with any concrete proposal indicating the manner in which the petitioners can be paid their pension both the current and the past. Under these circumstances, the only option left for the court is to direct stoppage of payment of salary/ honorarium to the chairperson as well as councillors and Class I officers of the IMC and divert the amount to payment of the current pension of the pensioners.`
In a press meet held today at Manipur Press Club, secretary of Imphal Municipal Pensioners Association L Tomba said that after exhausting all options to recover their 169 months of due pension, the association had filed a writ petition with the then Gauhati High Court in 2003.
`Finally in 2005, the IMC was directed to clear the amount immediately. Yet there is still black log payment which might be declared unclaimed if the delay is prolonged`™ he said.
Hence, we sought another submission from the court, he said.
Unfortunately, the IMC has only provided verbal assurance without actually clearing their full dues or complying with the court directives, he added.
Such conduct of the IMC to clear the pensions of the pension amounts to disrespecting the senior citizens, he observed.
Another member of the association G Brajabihari Sharma who had retired almost 10 years back said he has received only half the amount of his due pension during the last one decade.
He continued such kind of treatment meted out by our own department has scrapped us of our dignity and left us wanting in our old age.
He said it is also of profound unhappiness that the temporary shed inside the IMC campus under which they use to come together has been dismantled.