COPY.
Subject - ENCLOSURE. to Govt. Despatch. No. 308/(1)
67
From the Deputy Superintendent of Police.
To the Captain Superintendent of Police.
52480
'16 SEP
Honourable C.S.P.
In 1894 you drew the attention of the Government C.S.O. 1546/1894 to the fact that no deaths ever seemed to occur in the ranks of the Indian Police pensioners, and suggested that the Indian Government be asked to make careful enquiries and report whether all the men ostensibly drawing pensions were in fact still living. The result of the action taken on your letter was the removal of about a dozen names from the pension roll.
From the fact that a further 13 names disappeared from the roll in 1895 it would appear that the Government's enquiries must have been repeated that year, though there is no record of such action in this office.
Since 1895 only one name has been struck out of the Indian pension roll.
These facts seem to me very significant, and it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that some degree of laxity prevails in respect to the verification of the identity of some of the ostensible pensioners. The duty of certifying to the death or life of pensioners is, I believe, left to the village "lumbardars" or headmen, and the Indian Government can perhaps hardly be expected to provide the close supervision necessary to ensure the entire absence of corruption in such minor matters of administration. There is, however, as you have suggested, a ready means of obviating all this trouble and uncertainty in the case of future pensioners, namely by giving effect to the proposal which was strongly advocated by the Retrenchment Committee in 1894. (Page XXXIV, paragraph 201 of the Report) to give the men on retirement a lump sum instead of a pension. The suggestion of the Committee was that all Indian pensions should be compulsorily commuted
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