THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Action against more employees in the incident of illegally receiving social security pension. The health department has taken action against 373 employees who committed the fraud. The decision is to recover the illegally received money with 18 % interest.
The health department is the third department to take action in the social security pension fraud. Most of the 1458 government employees found by the finance department to have received welfare pension without entitlement are in the health and education departments. The list of 373 people has been released with their names. The list also includes attendants, clerks, nursing assistants, etc. The present decision is not to suspend them directly. The order clarified that the money will be recovered along with a fine.
Departmental action will also be taken against them soon. Earlier, the soil conservation department and the public administration department took action against those who committed the fraud.
Six part-time sweepers in the public administration department, who had illegally received welfare pensions, had served notices yesterday demanding repayment of their pensions. The amount has to be repaid with 18 % interest. They will have to repay between Rs 22,600 to Rs 86,000. The secretary of the public administration department had recommended their dismissal the previous day, but the government has decided that other measures will be sufficient only after recovering the money. Earlier, six employees of the soil conservation department were suspended.