THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has vowed stringent action against government employees who have been fraudulently receiving social security pension.
Chairing a high-level meeting to discuss the social security pension scam, the CM said the act of pensioners who did not exclude themselves from the scheme after obtaining a government job cannot be termed “carelessness”.
The local self-governments should review eligibility of beneficiaries and the finance department should conduct regular checks, he said.
The finance department had recently identified 1,458 government employees, including gazetted officers, assistant professors, and higher secondary teachers, who were collecting social security pensions illegally. The high-level meeting decided to take department-level action against erring employees.
They will be asked to repay the amount with interest. Action will also be taken against officers who helped them make the beneficiary list.
Plan on to identify all illegal beneficiaries
The meeting also decided to take action against other illegal beneficiaries, including those identified at Kottakkal municipality, as well.
A random check by the Finance Inspection Wing had identified 38 illegal beneficiaries under the municipality. They included BMW car owners, people living in air conditioned homes, service pensioners and people living in houses exceeding 2,000 sq ft area.
One of the beneficiaries was dead. The meeting also charted a plan to identify and weed out remaining illegal beneficiaries. Concurring mustering will be introduced to exclude the dead. A face authentication system will be used for mustering. Income certificate and Aadhaar seeding will be made mandatory.
Finance Minister K N Balagopal, Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) A Jayathilak, Chief Minister’s Chief Principal Secretary K M Abraham, LSGD Principal Director Seeram Sambasiva Rao and Information Kerala Mission executive director Santhosh Babu, attended the meeting.