Imphal, August 24: A Government employee joining service on the date of his birth and then getting pension benefit after being in service for only 10 years!.

Ever heard of it ? Though, a 'unique case', it may find a place in Ripley's Believe It or Not, but it seems to be a possibility in Manipur with such cases among others coming to light during the course of investigation by the Vigilance Department.

An official of the State Vigilance Department disclosed to The Sangai Express that the case of a Government employee joining service on the date of his birth and then getting pension benefit after 10 years of service has been detected while investigating the complaints of withdrawing pension without the knowledge of the pensioners concerned or against the names of deceased pensioners.

On the other hand in the cases of pensioners under the Thoubal Treasury Office, the whereabouts of three of them still remain a mystery.

To aid in the ongoing investigation of the Vigilance, the names and other related particulars of the pensioners under Thoubal and Tamenglong Treasuries have been submitted so far.

But the Imphal Treasury is yet to submit the required documents of the pensioners, the official informed.

During the course of verifying the names of the pensioners in Tamenglong district, it came to light that one of the pensioners joined service on July 6, 1995 which is the same as his date of birth and has been enjoying pension after retirement on July 31, 2005 which is just after 10 years of service.

The pensioner in question had already withdrawn pension amount for 10 years so far.

Besides this, another case of a Government employee enjoying pension benefit although he is almost 100 years old has also been detected from the list of the pensioners submitted by the Treasury office, the official said.

On the other hand, out of the names of three pensioners submitted to the Vigilance from Thoubal Treasury, the whereabouts of all three of them remain traceless, the official said, adding that the report submitted to the authorities concerned mentioned the two of them as GAD employees.

Subsequently, all the documents related to the pensioners of Thoubal districts have been seized from UBI Thoubal Branch and AG for further verifications, the official informed.

Although the total number of family pension beneficiaries from Thoubal Treasury approved by AG till July 9, 2007 is 12875, more number of beneficiaries have been detected from the list maintained by the Treasury office, the official added.

It may be called that Officer in-charge of Thoubal Treasury has already been suspended from service by the Government in connection with these cases.

The State Government has been making arrangement to computerise the system of paying pension to the pensioners through the banks in an effort to check such anomalies and ease disbursement of pension to the pensioners.

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