K Paparao, who has developed total blindness and is suffering from Parkinsons disease, has approached the Gujarat high court seeking his retirement benefits.
A retired IFS officer, K Paparao, who has developed total blindness and is suffering from Parkinsons disease, has approached the Gujarat high court seeking his retirement benefits. At present residing at Hyderabad, he has to bear expenses of Rs5.20 lakh for a deep brain surgery.
Paparao, who was promoted to the Indian Forest Service (IFS) in 1991 and retired as deputy conservator of forests in 2001 after 35 years of service, has sought payment of Rs9 lakh towards his retirement benefits.
According to him, his retirement benefits were held up as a criminal case was pending against him and there was some hitch related to correct calculation of his pay scale as per his higher post in service. Meanwhile, the state forest department has assured to consider the issue of his promotion.
His petition will come up for further hearing in the high court on December 1, 2009. "Paparao is the only officer of the state who got 'Indira Priyadarshini Vruksh Mitra award', which is given for exemplary work in afforestation in the country, from the hands of former prime minister, late Rajiv Gandhi, in 1988," said VM Trivedi, counsel for the IFS officer.
"We are now awaiting reply of the state government," he said. According to the case details, K Paparao had joined as range forest officer (RFO) in 1966. He was subsequently promoted to the IFS cadre in 1991 and allocated Gujarat cadre by the Union government. Later, a corruption case had been lodged against him in Surat in 1994.
The forest department did not take any action against him as it found that the case was lodged at the behest of a forest officer, against whom Paparao had taken strict action and subsequently suspended him, with ulterior motive. However, his retirement benefits were held up after he superannuated from service in 2001. He, however, got a clean chit from the high court in 2006 when the court quashed the criminal complaint against him.
Paparao has claimed in his petition that he was entitled to pension on the basis of his service span and pay scales as improved by the Union government, which treated his promotion to the IFS to be effective from 1985. He was also entitled to get proper pay fixation in IFS cadre like Junior administrative grade and Selection grade. His gratuity and other dues were paid only in April, 2009. Therefore, on different counts, he was entitled to receive around Rs9 lakh more.
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