The saying, ''its 'never too late'' could not be more true, when one
of the oldest surviving WW-II veteran soldier to have served in the
British and Indian Army, 106- year-old Khazan Singh Kohli, got what he
most desired- the revised pension as per his rank, that of Naik Subedar,
three weeks ahead of the two-day defense pension adalat being held in
the city on June 21-22nd at AFMC.
Kohli retired from the Indian Army in 1949, and has since been getting
the pension of a sepoy when he should have got the pension due to a Naik
Subedar. He will now get between Rs 5000-6000/- plus as against Rs
2373/- including a basic with arrears effective from 1996. Kohli's
battle began when he first wrote to officials concerned officials in
1999 but received little response.
The family began to look into the matter since last year. His
grandaughter, Gurvinder Kaur, who has recently completed studies in
clinical psychology told UNI that,''the discrepancies in his pension
have finally been rectified, and the family received the 'good news' on
May 29th following a letter from CDA-P''.
The matter was taken up by the Pune Zilla Sainik Welfare Officer, Lt Col
Shirish Karasgi (retd), who urged the family members to put up the case.
Singh's son, daughter-in-law and grandaughter began to write to
authorities concerned and at various levels in May 2006.
''Initially, we thought it was going to be a big struggle but by January,
we had got the feeling that we may just get it as the letters were quite
positive. Earlier, we ran from pillar to post realising that there was
no pension table available for ready reference. Some of the old
documents with the bank were also not available'', she said.Vide a
letter (IO-44062/Corr/SP(T-IV) dt May 29, 2007 the records office of the
Army Supply Corps (ASC) in Bangalore, has advised Bank of Maharashtra (from
where Kohli is drawing his monthly pension) to pay the revised amount
with effect from January 1, 1996.
Gurvinder informed that her grandfather who is a strict disciplinarian
on receiving the news was very happy and even proud to see his photos
splashed in local dailies. Khazan Singh Kohli has two sons and three
daughters, he lost his wife 33 years ago. When asked about his daily
diet, Gurvinder said his day begins with a cup of tea, followed by pohe
or something light, for lunch at 1230 hrs he has 2 chapatis and subji
and the same goes for dinner at 2100 hrs.
Born on Spetember 3, 1899 at Dulla in Rawalpindi, Kohli a World War-II
veteran, joined the Army Supply Corps based in Dhaka. During the period
he met Subhash Chandra Bose. He has also witnessed Jallianwala Bagh. He
donated his 100-year-old service rifle to city's Raja Kelkar Museum two
years ago in the presence of the then Municipal Commissioner Dr Nitin
Kareer.
A happy Karasgi told UNI, ''there is a sense of achievement, what is due
to these seniors they must get and that too at the earliest''.
Around 512 applications have been received so far for the 81st defence
adalat and the 6th in Maharashtra to be held here. Defence personnel
from other states with any grievance are also welcome to register their
cases, he informed.
Karasgi said several other cases have already been settled ahead of the
adalat one of a Major General's widow who was drawing less pension. Some
of the pension related problems are to do with lack of communication
between banks and records office, or administrative where one rank one
pension has not been implemented or lack ofinformation about the
pensioners family or personal details, he said.
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