Calcutta, June 10: Two women, whose husbands died over 40 years ago, were today granted pension by the state administrative tribunal, setting what a government lawyer said was a “record”.

Octogenarians Madhubala Saha and Renubala Saha will get over Rs 2.5 lakh in arrears and if a simple interest at the rate of 8 per cent is allowed, they will bag Rs 12 lakh each.

Madhubala’s husband Hirendra Mohan, a PWD labourer in the highway division, died in 1962. Renubala’s husband Brajagopal, also a labourer in the same department, died in 1965.

The widows are neighbours at Gourangapara in Nabadwip, Nadia, about 110km from Calcutta.

Justice Alok Kumar Basu asked the government to disburse the widows’ pensions immediately.

Hirendra Mohan had died while constructing a road in Kalna division of Burdwan.

His colleague Brajagopal fell ill while working on a road three years later and died in hospital.

“At the time of their death, there was no pension for PWD employees. But on September 19, 1987, the government issued a circular saying widows of state employees who died between August 15, 1947, and September 19, 1987, would get their pension,” said Sushanta Kumar Bhattacharya, the lawyer who appeared on behalf of the widows.

The widows came to know about the circular in 1990. The same year, they approached the PWD authorities in Burdwan for their dues.

“The officials there told the widows their husbands were employed in Kalna and they should contact the Hooghly division because Kalna had merged with it,” the lawyer said.

When they approached the Hooghly division, the officials sent them back to Burdwan. Having run pillar to post for 14 years, they moved the tribunal in 2004.

Bhattacharya said the tribunal passed an order in favour of the petitioners in 2005, but the state did not follow the order. “So they moved the tribunal again in 2007.”

When the case came up for hearing today, PWD representatives told the court they were ready to disburse the pensions. “We’ve asked the accountant general’s office to prepare the papers,” one of them said.

The judge gave the PWD three months to disburse the pension.

“Never in the state’s judicial history has a widow been awarded pension over four decades after her husband’s death. Today’s order has created a record,” said Subrata Mukhopadhyay, a junior counsel for the government.

The widows will move the tribunal again seeking interest along with the pension.