Pension: Govt plugs holes in scheme

Principal Secretary (Social Welfare) Prem Narain said: “We have changed the process after burning our fingers in this scheme. We have lost nearly Rs 50 crore to fake pensioners in the scheme and primary investigations point out that it was the gram pradhan who were responsible for the fraud in tandem with the fake beneficiaries. Hence,we have changed the norms. It is a three-tier process instead of direct applications.”

Earlier,the pensioners could either send in their applications directly to the district social welfare officer’s (DSWO) office which was marked by the gram pradhan or the gram pradhan sent the applications of those villagers whom he found eligible to the DSWO. But now,the applications would first be sent to the block development officer or the block panchayat officer ,who will verify it within a week of receiving the application,and then send it to the DSWO.

“This way,we have an official at the block level itself,who will become answerable in case anything goes wrong. The pradhans have opposed that they were being held responsible for everything. Also,the BDOs will be verifying these periodically,which the pradhans never did,” said Narain.

The department,meanwhile, has managed to recover around Rs 12 crore from fake pensioners from across the state. According to department officials, the department is also recovering money from gram pradhans who were withdrawing money under fake accounts.