Sivakumar B | Mar 3, 2016, 07.43 AM IST
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has saved a tidy sum of Rs 20 crore per month after the discovery of nearly 2 lakh bogus old-age pension beneficiaries in the state. This wastage of government resources came to light after the linking of Aadhaar numbers with the list of pension beneficiaries recently , said senior Tamil Nadu government officials at a seminar on Aadhaar on Wednesday .
There are 35 lakh senior citizens who receive Rs 1,000 per month as old age pension and 92% of the pension accounts have been seeded with Aadhaar in the state though the total Aadhaar coverage is only 80%. In nine districts of the state, the Aadhaar coverage is poor, UIDAI deputy director general M V S Mari Reddy told TOI. Explaining the merits of linking Aadhaar with various social security schemes of the central and state governments, a TN official in charge of social security schemes said, "We experimented with various methods to make the issue of pension foolproof. We also tried smart cards but nothing worked like Aadhaar. Within a few months after linking of Aadhaar and pension accounts, we were able to detect 2 lakh bogus pensioners who were dead but somebody was still getting pension in their names."
In Tamil Nadu, 72% of the job cards issued under MGNREGA have been linked with Aadhaar and a portion of school scholarships have also been linked with the unique identity number. There are several such success stories across the country .
"In Chandigarh, out of the 65,000 families getting kerosene, 45,000 were found to be getting subsidised LPG too.Linking of Aadhaar with LPG brought out the flaw and corrective measures were taken," said Mari Reddy . In neighbour ing Andhra Pradesh, nearly 68 lakh bogus units were removed from the public distribution system and the state was able to save 17% of the total allotment of grains, he said.
Meanwhile, Aadhaar coverage in Tamil Nadu, which started late compared to other states, has been sluggish in 9 districts with Chennai being at the top.
"Many rich and middle class people consider Aadhaar as an identity for the poor as they are dependent on government schemes. They have passport, EPIC and pan card as ID proof and are apathetic to get registered for Aadhaar," said Reddy .
We have similar problems in Mumbai too while in Delhi, it has reached 100% coverage, the official said.