'LIC PENSIONERS CALICUT' has received a copy of letter Sh. P. Ramanathan has written to LIC requesting to transfer his Pension files to Chennai Division No.1 (from Chennai DO No.2). He has written a lengthy letter. We have already published excerpts of his letter the other day.
Shri Ramanathan has given his arguments at length in an unusual fashion. But it is our feeling that no arguments are necessary at all for transfer of his pension file.
What is required is appreciation of one single fact that a pensioner is after all a pensioner and an old man! A pensioner's problems are very different. Look at any pensioner. Day by day he is losing his usual vigour and vitality. He has reduced mental and cognitive ability. More often he has a tendency to make mistakes. He errs. He forgets. And he argues too. All this, because of his old age problems. He is prone to disease, syndromes and sickness. Even crossing a road or catching a bus is a problem for him. He may meet with fatal and unfortunate accidents any time. For him the countdown has just started. On the other hand, often decisions denying a request emanate from typical arguments in the office like "why he wants it; doesn't he receive his pension (what more he wants) etc." Those who deny such a request of a senior person may even ask why a concession is given to a senior citizen at all places. Why a seat is reserved for him in a bus? Why should somebody offer a helping hand to a person trying to cross a road... They may laugh at such practices....
Forget the individual before the competent authority and other petty prejudices.
We request:
Please allow Shri Ramanathan the luxury of a transfer of his file to an office of his convenience. What is required here is not sympathy but only empathy. Will the authority rise to the occasion and solve the problem.
We are sure, there is going to be a magnificent decision in this matter which we will applaud and inform the pensioners across the country.