With pension crisis staring in the face yet again, pensioners of Punjab Agricultural University have threatened to file a contempt of court or approach the Supreme Court if the university failed to pay pensions by November 14.

SP Garg, general secretary of the PAU Pensioners Welfare Association, informed, “At the general body meeting of the association, we have decided to approach the court in case our pensions for the month of October are not released immediately.”

Notable here is that PAU has been facing severe pension crisis since November, 2007. So far the university has somehow managed to pay pension to its 2,400 odd pensioners. PAU disburses Rs 2.5 crore each month as pensions.

The High Court, in its judgment in May last had disposed off a petition filed by the Confederation of PAU Pensioners Associations with a direction to the PAU to decide the representations made by them within a period of one month from the date of receipt of certified copy of the order.

Adding to this, SN Sharma said, “After having somehow tided over the last two years with some grant from the government, also PAU also chipping in, we kept getting our pensions somehow. But now the situation seems grim as PAU doe not have funds while the state government has not cleared any of the the schemes suggested by PAU that could hep in raising funds like levying a 50p cess on each bag of wheat and paddy produced in Punjab.”

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