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Senior citizens at a helpdesk in Bhubaneswar.
Picture by Ashwinee Pati
Bhubaneswar, Oct. 9: Pensioners will have to submit a copy of their Aadhaar card to stay in the list of eligible beneficiaries under the state government's Madhu Babu Pension Yojna.
It was decided as part of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation's decision to put up a stringent mechanism for ensuring error-free pension distribution to beneficiaries. Last month, the civic body drew flak after its pension scam had come to the fore.
"We have come up with the plan to ensure an error-free pension distribution system for the beneficiaries. We have already asked the people, who do not have Aadhaar cards to get it soon. We are helping them in getting the card. This will be mandatory for all," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.
There are about 20,000 pension-holders getting grants from the civic body. The pension amount varies between Rs 300 and Rs 500 per month.
According to the plan, the beneficiaries - already getting pensions from the government through the civic body - will have to produce either a life certificate (to be validated by the corporation), marriage or employment certificate to prove that they are alive and eligible to get the pension. The move is to weed out ghost beneficiaries.
The pensioners will get a month's time beginning today to approach the civic body's office with the required documents to prove their eligibility. The corporation will open four help desks for the purpose - one in its headquarters and one each in its three zonal offices in the city.
Jena said the officials had also come up with a uniform design for the life certificate to be submitted by the pensioners. "Our officials have designed the format for the life certificate to ensure uniformity in the process. It can be obtained from our office during working hours. It can also be downloaded from our website," said the mayor.
In September, the fake pensioners scam had come to fore, following which the corporation drew flak for issuing fake pensioner cards to the ineligible beneficiaries, who had allegedly withdrawn huge grants bringing monetary loss to the government.
The issue also rocked the civic body's monthly council meeting, when a number of councillors raised the matter asking for a suitable mechanism to overcome the flaw. The officials had then come up with the plan of linking the Aadhaar card and opening help desks for re-registration of the pensioners.
Last year, the corporation had conducted a pensioners' survey, in which the officials recorded information regarding the beneficiaries' status, their family members and account numbers among others. It was then revealed that there were some discrepancies regarding the eligible beneficiaries as many were getting pension by default without being eligible.
"We have received a number of complaints of ghost pensioners. We termed them as such, because they are the ones who get the money, but in real are not eligible. In some cases, the family members of the beneficiaries continue to receive the grant even after death of the person concerned. We hope in the new plan all those will be caught," said a civic body official.
Sudhakar Moharana, a pensioner, said he was yet to get an amount of Rs 10,000 towards his pension from the civic body since the past one year. "There is a major fault in the system. We, despite being eligible, are not getting the pensions on time, while the ineligible persons are getting it easily. I urge the officials to put up an error-free mechanism," said the Dhirakuti Basti resident.
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