Govt to weed out fake pension beneficiaries
Tuesday, 04/04/2017
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/govt-to-weed-out-fake-pension-beneficiaries/386758.html
Chandigarh : Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today directed the Social Security Department to clear all pension arrears (till March 31) of the existing 19.08 lakh beneficiaries, while announcing that a new mechanism for verification and amendments in the eligibility criteria for beneficiaries will be enforced from April 1.
The announcements followed a high-level review meeting of the department chaired by the Chief Minister and attended, among others, by Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh and Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar.
It was also decided at the meeting that all pensions would be paid through banks from November to streamline the process and to ensure timely and smooth payments, an official spokesperson later disclosed.
The previous government had reverted to the system of disbursing pensions through village sarpanches as a vote bank mechanism.
Besides changes in the verification process for future beneficiaries, the meeting also agreed on detailed scrutiny of the existing beneficiaries to root out the fake or undeserving beneficiaries.
The Chief Minister directed the department to ensure elimination of all such cases, irrespective of the political affiliations of the beneficiaries concerned. The genuine poor should get the benefit of pension, notwithstanding their political affiliation, the Chief Minister emphasised, pointing out that the then Akali-BJP government had deprived many beneficiaries of their due on account of their political interests.
According to the data as on January 1, 2016, there are 19.08 lakh beneficiaries in old age, widows, handicapped and orphan kids categories.
Under the existing rules, a prospective beneficiary applies to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), who directs release of provisional pension within three days, with verification to be done later.
This sometimes results in diversion of the pension amount into the wrong hands, which the department later finds difficult to retract, it was pointed out at the meeting.
The Chief Minister directed the Social Security Department to work out the modalities for the new eligibility criteria and verification system. The meeting also discussed the backlog of vacancies for the handicapped in various government departments.
