MARGAO
As usual, many a retired seafarer and widow, who had gone to the bank to withdraw the pension, had to return home disappointed after finding that the government has not credited their pension amount in their accounts.
They have no idea why the office of NRI Commissioner, which is handling the pension scheme, has not credited the pension amount, only bringing back the bitter past memories when the government had in November 2018 without assigning any reason discontinued the pension scheme for retired seafarers and widows.
In fact, the 1000-odd retired seafarers and widows, who had started receiving the pension under the Goa Welfare Pension scheme for Seafarers, have not received the pension for the month of December. They are struggling to find an answer to why there’s a government delay in crediting their pension till date when they were in receipt of the pension by the fifth of the month in the last six months.
Their fears are not totally unfounded given that the Goa Welfare Pension Scheme for Seafarers, 2021 was notified for a specific period of six months from June to November, implying that the scheme has lapsed in November and the government has to date not issued any notification, extending the scheme for a further period, leave alone coming out with a permanent scheme.
“We have no idea why the government has not credited the pension amount in our accounts. We have been in the past even promised that the government will come out with a permanent scheme for the retired seafarers and the widows”, remarked a retired seafarer, who was receiving a monthly pension of Rs 2,500 from the NRI office.
When The Goan called up the office of the NRI Commissioner to find out the fate of the pension scheme for the seafarers, an official replied back saying the government has not yet notified either the extension of the scheme or has come out with a permanent scheme.
“Without the government notifying the extension of the scheme, the pension amount cannot be credited into the accounts of the beneficiaries”, informed an official.
An official attributed the delay to the Cabinet decision taken on January 3 to extend the scheme, adding that the process is on to notify the scheme.
