Paralysed HM denied pension as increment order goes missing

TIRUVANNAMALAI: In a shocking incident, headmistress of a government school who was paralysed after an accident was refused pension as Cheyyar education department officials misplaced her increment order copy, sources said.

PK Saraswathi (58) who headed the primary school at Pandiampakkam in Tiruvannamalai district who also lost her speech after the accident is struggling to get her pension till date. The teacher who turned immobile after a hit and run incident while riding on her two wheeler in July 2021 was invalided out of service on September 28, 2022.

The Accountant General’s (AG) office in Chennai reportedly returned her application for pension, seeking a copy of the increment she received in 2013. The teacher’s relative Ilavarasan who spoke on her behalf said that he has been visiting the AEO’s office at Anakavoor near Cheyyar on multiple occasions over the last few months for the increment order copy without yielding results. “I am told that they have misplaced the increment letter when the office was shifted,” he said.

PK Saraswathi who joined service as an elementary school teacher and served all the way to become headmistress of a government school is getting a raw deal, said Ilavarasan. “She (Saraswathi) is completely dependent on others because of her immobility. We took her by car to the AEO’s office in Anakavoor. But the officials weren’t unhelpful, our repeated pleas didn’t yield results,” he added.

Officials said that Saraswathi was sanctioned a General Provident Fund (GPF) of Rs 29 lakhs which was not yet credited to her account as she had not handed over relevant documents. Collector B Murugesh however said that the issue would be resolved in two days as education officials have been tasked to trace the missing document.