“What was not completed in more than four years was done in just four days!” – Ex Army Officer breathes a sigh of relief
New Delhi: The efficiency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government continues to be applauded by one and all. Yet another proof is the much-circulated email of retired Army Colonel Pratap Raju, describing his experience. Here are the excerpts from the email:
I’d like to share two very important experiences of my life. My father recently passed away at the age of 90. He was an engineer with the Public Works Department of the Central Government. He was drawing a monthly pension of Rs.40,000.
The spouse pension was not given to my 89-year-old mother. About five years ago, my father wrote to the armed forces pension authorities in order to include my mother’s name in his pension book. But her name was not included. Meanwhile, my father’s eyesight began to fail. I kept sending reminders to the authorities. They gave me the standard reply – your request is being processed. Even at the time of my father’s death, the request was not completed. As a result, my widowed mother was not given the family pension.
Dejected, I sent yet another reminder, this time, after the Modi government took charge. A week later, an official reverted to me with a message that my request will be completed within a week (note that it didn’t say that my request was being processed).
Five days later, one Jeetendra Singh called me over the phone. He told me that the documents regarding my mother have been sent to the bank.
Surprised, I checked the central government pensioners’ website. That was when I found out that the person who had called me was a joint minister of the department. With an immense sense of relief, I called up the minister to express my thanks to him. In a very humble voice he said, “This is due to Prime Minister Modi. He made it very clear that no woman, who has lost her husband, should suffer due to pension delays.”
In other words, what was not accomplished by the Manmohan Singh government in four years was completed by the Modi government in just four days!
With respect, Senior Citizens: This is another incident.
Last month, I was supposed to accompany my aged mother to the bank to sign the life certificate. Instead, the bank officials themselves came home and got the forms signed, thus saving her the trouble of having to go to the bank. The officials said that they were instructed to treat senior citizens with respect.
I couldn’t help but think about the previous year, when I had to take my 90-year-old mother to the bank to sign the form. How have times changed since then!