THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has relaunched the facility to make corrections in the database on social security pension beneficiaries. Express had earlier reported the facility to make corrections in the database was stalled as part of identifying bogus beneficiaries. The temporary suspension had invited the wrath of people’s representatives. A government order issued the other day said the officers concerned can draw up an identified list of corrections in the database. These include mistakes in the affidavit, non-issuing of digital signature by the secretary of the local self-government and errors in bank account details.
The Finance Department has asked the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Cell and Information Kerala Mission which maintains the database to allow local self-government secretaries to make corrections. However, it has strictly banned re-registering of beneficiaries found ineligible according to the revised guidelines and were thus removed from the list.
In the case of eligible beneficiaries removed from the list, the local self-government secretary can submit a report to the DBT Cell which will take a final decision.The government is working on a plan to weed out ineligible beneficiaries from the list and the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation has been roped in to conduct a sample survey of pensioners. The survey findings will be used to devise the elimination criteria. The government spends Rs 460 crore a month on pensions for 42.4 lakh beneficiaries.