Every sixth beneficiary of oldage pension missing

GOVT SURVEY Finding raises apprehensions of fake accounts created to embezzle crores by previous SADBJP regime; welfare department plans to recover money too

Nearly 3.6 lakh beneficiaries of Punjab’s old-age pension scheme are not available at their given address or have passed away, a state government survey has found, raising apprehensions that these could be fake. The missing beneficiaries account for at least 18% (1 in every six) of the 19.8 lakh registered with the social welfare department. Teams carried out the survey in all 22 districts and visited the listed address of each beneficiary twice.

Most cases of fake beneficiaries 32% were found in Bathinda district — the home turf of the Badals, who had been at the helm of the government for the previous ten years. Of around 1.1 lakh beneficiaries in the district, about 36,000 are fake or missing. Amritsar followed Bathinda with 25.6% of beneficiaries missing. Muktsar is third with 25.2% beneficiaries untraceable. Lambi, the home constituency of former CM Parkash Singh Badal, falls in this district. Hoshiarpur has the least number of cases (6.3%) followed by Moga (8%). Sources in the welfare department said the government planned to start the recovery process for the money and will take action against officers found guilty. The amount to be recovered runs into crores of rupees, they claimed.

The Captain Amarinder Singh government, on coming to power in March, had ordered an inquiry into the pensions. While the inquiry was underway, the pension to all beneficiaries was halted.

Sources in the department said at least 50% of the beneficia- ries of the scheme were registered during the previous AkaliBJP regime. “The pension is due from May and we will resume it to genuine beneficiaries soon,” director, social welfare department, Kavita Singh told HT. She added the department had identified the ‘problem cases’ and would not have any trouble recovering the money, if a directive was issued.

“In case, a beneficiary has an objection to our survey, we are ready to give him or her a chance to prove genuineness,” she added.

Around 16.2 lakh beneficiaries of the scheme have been identified as genuine. Around 51,000 were found underage and 42,000 were not below poverty line. In around 2 lakh cases, the beneficiaries were not found to be residing at the address registered with the department and about 73,000 beneficiaries are no longer alive.

To check this shortcoming, the government plans to transfer the benefit directly into accounts of beneficiaries.

The Amarinder government had increased the pension amount to ₹750 per month in July this year.