1.43 lakh fake pensioners weeded out

CHANDIGARH: With the detection of 1.46 lakh fake pensioners during the implementation of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of the social security pension scheme to disburse all categories of pension in the state, the Haryana Social Justice and Empowerment Department (SJED) will save Rs 280 crore annually from the 2016-17 financial year.

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 15

With the detection of 1.46 lakh fake pensioners during the implementation of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of the social security pension scheme to disburse all categories of pension in the state, the Haryana Social Justice and Empowerment Department (SJED) will save Rs 280 crore annually from the 2016-17 financial year.

Though senior officials of the department did not share whether they wanted to take legal action against fake pensioners or start recovery proceedings, they confirmed they were working to finalise a plan to send a strong signal to prevent its re-occurrence.

As per details of the department, in 2015-16 the department disbursed Rs 3,312 crore to all 23.67 lakh pensioners. During digitisation of record for the implementation of the DBT, out of the total 23.67 pensioners, the department found 1.46 lakh fake and stopped their pension.

“We have detected 1.46 lakh fake pensioners and will save Rs 280 crore annually from the current year. We are discussing what sort of action should be taken against them. We have interlinked all bank accounts of pensioners with Aadhaar cards and now all state pensioners are getting pension online,” Sunil Gutali, Additional Chief Secretary of SJED, told The Tribune.

Some seniors said though they did not face any problem in all 81 main towns of the state to interlink Aadhaar cards of pensioners with bank accounts, they faced inconvenience in the rural areas, as only 21 per cent of villages of the state had branches of various banks. To launch the DBT in all villages, they made various alternative arrangements.

There are 6,756 villages in the state, out of which 1,439 have bank branches. In the remaining villages, the department has started using other sources. In 2,177 village, the department has been disbursing pension through post offices (PO), 1,244 villages are getting pension through their neighbouring village branch of the bank, 599 neighbouring village PO, 1,799 through business correspondent agents of banks and 810 by the primary agriculture cooperative societies. The remaining are getting it through private mobile company arraignments.

Out of current 22.21 lakh pensioners in the state, 14.28 lakh are old-age pensioners, 1.42 lakh disabled, 6 lakh widows and the remaining are ‘Ladlis’, non-schoolgoing and eunuchs.