Mumbai: Does faith make things easy? No, if a retired police officer fighting for his pension dues of Rs30 lakh for the past five years is to be believed. Frustrated with the system and losing complete faith in it, he is on indefinite hunger strike since Jan 26 and has decided to renounce Hindu religion and auctioned his faith for conversion to the highest bidder. For daily subsistence, he has also decided to offer his eyes, kidneys and liver for sale.
Hunger strike at Azad Maidan
Deepak Manohar Kurulkar retired as Senior Police Inspector from the Mumbai Police Special Branch in November 2017, but is still waiting to get his pension cheques and arrears. On hunger strike at Azad Maidan, he has demanded that the Mumbai Police administration clear all necessary paperwork for him to claim Rs30 lakh accumulated in the government treasury.
On the 11th day of his hunger strike, Kurulkar rues the thankless 34 years of service. “I wanted to live a dignified retired life. I have been knocking on every door – senior police and home department officials. No enquiry or disciplinary action is pending against me but still my pension has been denied. How can a retired government servant survive without any source of income?” questioned Kurulkar braving the afternoon sun with his wife.
Local police officers & constables are my extended family, says cop
All praise for local police station officers and constables who come to enquire about his health and well-being with assurances that his pension would be cleared, he said, “They are my extended family, but how long can a self-respecting person live on charity. I want to get my two daughters married and live a peaceful retired life,” said Kurlkar with tears streaming down.
According to senior administrative officials of the Mumbai Police, clerical errors in the service book created a mess in the salary verification cell when Kurulkar was posted in Amravati in 2015, before his transfer to Mumbai police in 2017. Even during his service, Kurulkar said he was paid a lower grade salary even though he was senior to many drawing bigger pay cheques.
“The discrepancies were pointed out to the accounts department but were never rectified by successive administrative officers. After many years of struggle, my pay scale was upgraded to the next level, which was still below my eligible scale. The errors of the pay and accounts department has cost me another Rs15 lakh loss in wages,” said Kurulkar.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Mumbai Police special branch) Sanjay Darade was not available for comments and did not respond to call and messages for statement.
