`Dead' man walking, `guarding' and also getting salary

Allauddin Sheikh, a security guard with the local civic body, reports to work regularly and draws salary every month. Nothing amiss, except that the 52-year-old was declared "dead" by civic authorities last year.

"In May this year, I learnt through my colleague that I had been declared dead in BMC's records by one of our clerks on October 27, 2009. I have been reporting to work daily and also get my salary on time," Sheikh said.

Sheikh is making endless rounds of the civic body and meeting officials to ensure the error is rectified at the earliest.

"I'm thankful to God that at least my wife, who is suffering from high blood pressure, was not informed about it. But this is ridiculous. How they can declare me dead and on what basis?" he said.

Sheikh joined Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 1981 and has six years left for retirement. He is currently posted at the G-south ward office.

The clerical error brought trouble for Sheikh who had taken a Rs 1.25-lakh loan from Municipal Corporation Bank for his daughter's wedding in 2006.

"Since then, I have been paying an instalment of about Rs 3,000 per month. A sum of Rs 35,000 was yet to be paid.

When bank officials learnt about my `death', they deducted the pending amount from my account without my knowledge," Sheikh said.

Joint security officer of BMC S V Kulkarni said, "We admit that our staff committed a mistake and we are rectifying it. It happened mistakenly. Sheikh was irregular on duty and this might be one of the reasons why the clerk may have marked him as dead."