Govt loses Rs 110 cr to fake beneficiaries,tightens belt

After ordering physical verification of the scheme following complaints from various districts,the state government has received the compiled reports of 52 districts.

Though the deadline given to the districts was December 31,the government is still waiting for reports from 19 districts and has extended the deadline to the end of February.

According to official statistics,the state government disburses old age pension of Rs 300 a month to 40 lakh people in the BPL category every year.

Of the 40 lakh pensioners,it was found that 1.72 lakh are fake. The fake beneficiaries have been divided in two categories — dead and undeserving. 82,000 are in the undeserving category and the rest (88,000) are dead.

Nearly 2,000 people also feature in a separate category who could not be verified as they were not available and needed a second verification.

Following such revelations,the state government has stopped the disbursement of the pension till the time it is streamlined.

Principal Secretary (Social Welfare) Prem Narain,said: “We have ordered the district magistrates to recover the money from the bank for the dead beneficiaries.”

“It is not a difficult task as in several cases of dead pensioners we have found that the pension amount was still lying with the bank. Hence,we have asked the banks to return the money,” he said.

“In cases where the pensioner was dead but the money was being taken out from the account,we have asked the district magistrates to conduct a probe and take action not just against the department officials but also the banks,” he added.

Narain said: “In few cases,we have been told that people are depositing money with the district offices while trying to save themselves from legal action.”

The state government has also ordered that wherever the fake pensioners have been excluded from the list,new beneficiaries should be added. “On January 15,we included 13,000 new pensioners in the old age pension list and we have asked the districts to identify new people,” said Narain.