‘RECORDS SHOW YOU ARE DECEASED’ - SORRY NO PENSION

It is not often that you get to hear about your death. But in a curious tale reported from the Welimada - Divithotawela area, that is exactly what had happened to an elderly lady who had gone to collect her farmers’ pension.

The seventy-two-year- old woman who called over at the Agricultural Insurance Board to obtain the farmer’s pension payment was in for a surprise. The astonished lady had been turned away by the officials who claimed their records indicate she had died and therefore was not entitled to the pension.

The frustrated old woman still unable to

The lady had been turned away by the officials who claimed their records indicate she had died and therefore was not entitled to the pension.

get over the shock of having heard about her own death, related her pathetic story in this manner. R.M. Muthumenika (72) mother of five children, holder of Subscriber Number B D 425812831 of Agricultural Insurance Board and holder of title deed number B D 7987 is a resident of Divithotawela. Since her husband’s death, 18 years ago, she had been undergoing much difficulty in making ends meet.

She had called at the relevant office on April 7, 2014 in order to obtain the arrears of Farmer’s Pension paid from October 2011. She had the most terrifying message when officers of the insurance board declined the payment due to her, stating that according to their records, she is deceased. Disgruntled by the treatment meted out to her by the officials she had written to President Mahinda Rajapaksa stating her grievances.