Agri Dept told to pay family pension to widow

NIZAMABAD: Justice S. Nanda of the Telangana High Court set aside an order passed by the commissioner and director of agriculture and directed payment of family pension along with interest to a resident of Nizamabad.

The judge was dealing with a writ petition filed by L. Vijayalakshmi, wife of an employee, L. Mohan Reddy, who died in harness in 1969 after completing his probation. The petitioner said the non-grant of the family pension was on the ground that the records were not available.

The officials said she made the claim after 43 years and the records were not available due to the re-organisation of the panchayat raj department and the shifting of records to different offices.

Justice Nanda said that the non-availability of records could not be aground for depriving the petitioner’s legitimate right to family pension. She pointed to procedures where officials could accept collateral evidence produced by the applicant.