The Southern Railways today disposed of 118 representations of the total 138 that were received during the annual Pension Adalat held at the Salem Divisional office.

An amount of Rs 26.35 lakh—claimed to be the highest settlement made during such adalats since the inception of the division—was released in favour of the applicants.

Of the 138 claims received from 100 retired railway pensions and beneficiaries, 16 could not be accepted as they were in contravention to the extant rules and four had to be kept pending for want of sufficient documents, Southern Railway sources said.

In his address, Divisional Railway Manager Hari Shankar Verma said that both the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Defence took the utmost care of their pensioners. The Railways have redressed about 99 per cent of the grievances of pensioners all over the country, Verma said.

The pensioners and beneficiaries expressed satisfaction over the steps taken by the division authorities to listen to their grievances and settle them, they said.