NIZAMABAD: In a shocking revelation, the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) has found that more than 2,400 beneficiaries of social security pension in Nizamabad district are dependents of government employees. The family members of the employees were drawing Aasara pension meant for the poor and needy causing a burden of Rs 1 crore to the state exchequer.
Shocked by the massive loot, DRDA, which supervises the distribution of social security pensions, has decided to recover the pension amount from the salaries of government employees whose dependents have been enrolled as beneficiaries of social security pension under Aasara scheme by submitting false details.
The incident came to light during a recent verification of certificates and the authorities are in the process of recovering the pension fund from the salaries of employees.
The government is providing social security pensions to widows, senior citizens, disabled, toddy tappers, weavers and HIV patients. Dependents of government employees and even those who take honorarium from government departments are not eligible to receive the pension.
According to sources, the relatives of officials submitted applications for social security pension by claiming themselves to be poor.
Meanwhile, in a recent survey by DRDA, they identified 2,410 beneficiaries to be dependents of government employees. “Every month, these people were drawing Rs 25 lakh by fraudulent means,” an official said.
“The government employees had included the names of their parents and relatives in the list of beneficiaries, who claimed themselves eligible for pension,” the officer explained.
Following the revelation, the DRDA has alerted all municipal commissioners and mandal development officers about the fraud and issued directions to recover the amount from the salaries of the employees whose dependents have drawn the Aasra pension. Nizamabad Municipal Corporation has already recovered around Rs 6 lakh.
Other municipalities and MDO have also initiated steps to recover the amount. “All the local bodies would speed up the process of recovery,” the official said.
DRDA Project Director P Venkatesham told Express they would recover the full amount from dependents of the employees.
In some cases, the government employees themselves are coming forward to repay the amount,” he explained. He said that the government is spending Rs 31 crore to distribute pension to 3.80 lakh people in the district.