Rs 70 PENSION WHEN ARHAR DAL IS Rs 80?

SC: Rs 70 PENSION WHEN ARHAR DAL IS Rs 80?
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, September 17
Expressing shock over the payment of a monthly pension of Rs 70 to a 90-year-old widow of an Army officer, the Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre and the Army seeking its response to a PIL filed by her.

“What is this? You are paying her just Rs 70 a month. Even a kilo of arhar dal costs around Rs 80,” a Bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and TS Thakur observed while passing the order.

The petitioner’s husband, Major Dharam Chand, had died in 1967 after a heart attack. The petitioner, Pushpa Vanti, said her husband could not get regular medical treatment due to the 1962 and 1965 wars. She had written to the government several times demanding higher pension so that she could bring up her two children.
According to her, she is entitled to a pension of about Rs 27,000 a month. She feels ashamed and humiliated to receive Rs 70 as pension when families of sepoys get more than Rs 150 a month. Her husband was a recipient of 14 medals.