Heart of Responsible Authorities Fails to Melt Even After Deteriorating Health
After completing government service, every employee expects that their post-retirement financial benefits—such as Provident Fund (PF), gratuity, and pension—will ensure their old age passes in peace. However, when this very lifetime of earnings falls prey to administrative red tape and apathy, how a senior citizen's life transforms into a struggle and humiliation is a tragic and eye-opening tale that has emerged from Saharsa district.
Gajendra Prasad Singh, a resident of Gautamnagar in Saharsa district, who retired from his service exactly thirty years ago in 1996, has been forced to run from pillar to post for the past three decades (30 years) to receive his rightful PF payment. Gajendra Prasad Singh, who retired in the nineties, countless times over the past thirty years visited the offices of various concerned authorities, submitted documentary evidence, and pleaded for justice, but to this day he has received nothing apart from hollow assurances and frustration. As of today, his age and failing health do not permit him to visit offices, but this pain within him and his outrage against the administrative system stand as a living proof of how insensitive our system has become. Let us analyze in detail this painful struggle of Gajendra Prasad Singh, the thirty-year long wait, administrative negligence, and the helplessness of an elderly person.
Background of the Case: 1996 Retirement and Shattered Hopes
For any government or semi-government employee, the day of retirement is a new chapter in life where they wish to live a peaceful life with their family.
Termination of Service Period and Paperwork: Gajendra Prasad Singh rendered his services with complete honesty and dedication throughout his active working tenure. When he retired in 1996, he submitted files as per rules for the payment of his Provident Fund (PF) and other retirement benefits.
Initial Procrastination: Initially, he felt that his money would arrive in his account after a few months of formalities. But those few months turned into year-after-year and then decade-after-decade. His shoes wore out running around the department, but the file failed to reach from one table to another.
Thirty-Year Long Struggle: Running Around Offices and Hollow Assurances
Three decades, meaning 30 years, constitutes half a person's life or the most active and lengthy portion of their existence. What all did Gajendra Prasad Singh not endure during these thirty years.
Pleas on the Threshold of Authorities: Running around from Gautamnagar in Saharsa to various departmental offices and the district headquarters, Gajendra Prasad Singh's hair turned white and his body grew weak. He saw generations of authorities change, submitted his applications, pleaded, but each time he received only the standard, repetitive response that "the file is under process."
Victim of Red Tape: Due to corruption and a sluggish work culture, his file was either misplaced or deliberately suppressed. For an elderly citizen, running around government offices just to receive his own money is no less than torture.
Phase of Deteriorating Health and Helplessness: Strength to Visit Offices No Longer Remains
Reaching this stage of life where the elderly need support and rest, Gajendra Prasad Singh is completely broken physically and mentally today.
Failing Health: Constant mental stress, age-related illnesses, and the suffocation of not receiving justice have severely impacted his health. He is now forced to remain bedridden.
Lack of Strength: The situation now is that strength no longer remains in his legs to enable him to visit the offices of authorities and narrate his grievance. His family also no longer possesses sufficient resources to run around nor the energy to entreat any officer. This thirty-year long wait has now transformed into a horrific tragedy.
Major Question Mark on Administrative Insensitivity
This matter is not merely about an individual's PF payment; rather, it is a massive blot on the working methodology of our entire administrative and governmental system.
Lack of Accountability: If an employee retires in 1996 and even after the lapse of 30 years up to 2026 does not receive his rightful due, what else can this be termed besides systemic failure? Do the officers of the concerned department not realize at all how grave an injustice they are committing against an elderly citizen?
Collapse of Human Sensibilities: This is the most vivid and grotesque example of how machinery sitting in government offices casts human sensibilities aside
This agony of Gajendra Prasad Singh, a resident of Gautamnagar in Saharsa, is one that shakes the heart of every sensitive citizen. After running around offices for his own money for thirty years, Gajendra Prasad Singh—now sitting helpless at home due to failing health—awaits the final ray of justice. This is the time for the district administration, the state government, and high-ranking authorities of the concerned PF department to awaken from slumber. What is required is that taking immediate cognizance of this matter, a special team should be constituted, bypassing the labyrinth of files, and his complete PF payment along with interest should be expeditiously remitted to his account so that this elderly person can find a little peace in the final phase of his life and his trust in the system can be restored.
