KOCHI: Arrear pension of retired employees should be completed within April 12th, ordered the High Court in one stern statement. Failure to meet the order would force the chief secretary and the transport secretary to appear before the court to give a valid explanation. Thiruvananthapuram native K Ashokkumar earlier filed a contempt of court saying the high court order to clear the pension arrears of the KSRTC former employees were given a blind eye by the officials. Justice Devan Ramachandran gave the order and the court will again consider the case on April 12th.

Earlier after hearing the pleas, the single bench of the high court asked KSRTC to distribute the pension by the fifth day of every month. The order was approved by the officials but no money reached the retired employees for months. This forced the court to again consider the case in haste.

On March 20, the KSRTC officials appeared before the court and assured that the pension arrears will be cleared within a matter of days. When the case got again considered on March 28th and 30th, the officials asked for more time to clear the arrears. Now the arrears of two months are piled up with employees going in a fix.