Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh has vowed to change the ink used to print pen­sion cheques as well as to change the laws re­gard­ing cheque fraud. His com­ments came af­ter 70-year-old Sookdean Dook­ie, of Pic­ton Set­tle­ment, Di­a­mond Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do, re­port­ed he could not cash his $3,000 pen­sion cheque be­cause it ac­ci­den­tal­ly got wet.

Dook­ie said he was ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pat­ing cash­ing his $3,000 pen­sion cheque for the first time. How­ev­er, while walk­ing along La­dy Hailes Av­enue, San Fer­nan­do, a car splashed wa­ter on Dook­ie, soak­ing him from head to foot. He said his cheque was safe­ly lodged in his back pock­et. How­ev­er, when he pulled it out, the type-writ­ten ink had been erased by the wa­ter. "The ink was sub-stan­dard. One drop of wa­ter and it rubs off. This is neg­li­gence," Dook­ie said.

In des­per­a­tion, he went to Port-of-Spain, seek­ing help from the So­cial Wel­fare head­of­fice. How­ev­er, they told him he had to lodge a com­plaint at the of­fice in San Fer­nan­do. It was there that an of­fi­cial told Dook­ie he would have to wait six months to get the cheque re-is­sued. The pen­sion­er said he was broke and did not know how he woluld sur­vive for the next month.

"I have no wife, no chil­dren and no par­ents. I have no­body to help me ex­cept a friend. All I want is for the Gov­ern­ment to change the ink that they use to print the cheque and to make some arrange­ments to cater for peo­ple like me," Dook­ie said. Con­tact­ed on his mo­bile phone yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter Ra­mad­hars­ingh said he in­tend­ed to take a note to Cab­i­net to am­mend the laws re­gard­ing pen­sion fraud. Ra­mad­hars­ingh al­so said he would look in­to chang­ing the ink.