Tahsildar delays allowance to disabled person, fined

In an order passed by SHRC member Justice D Jayachandran, he ordered the government to pay the sum and recover it from the government official.

According to the complainant, M Chandran, he had applied for maintenance allowance for differently-abled person through the State Commissioner for differently-abled. Considering his petition, the Commissioner forwarded it to the special tahsildar, social security scheme, Vilvankode on May 25, 2018. Following this, tahsildar Suresh obtained bank details and other required certificates from him on May 31, 2018 and told him that he would receive the amount from next month. As Chandran did not get the amount, he approached the tahsildar. When there was no proper reply, he approached the State Commissioner for differently-abled, who in turn sent a reminder to the tahsildar again. Despite this, Chandran was not provided the maintenance allowance.

In his reply to the complaint, the tahsildar said that the Vilvankode taluk was bifurcated in Vilvankode and Killiyur taluks currently and Chandran’s village falls under the Killiyur taluk. The tahsildar added that he forwarded the petition to the Killiyur taluk and Chandran has been getting the allowance from June 2019.

However, the commission said that the official didn’t take any action despite the letter from State Commission for differently-abled for several months and forwarded the petition during the bifurcation.

It also questioned whether the official would behave in the same manner if one of his family members was a disabled person waiting for the allowance. Apart from compensation, the commission also asked the government to instruct district Collectors to dispose of the petitions pending for social security schemes.