VIJAYAWADA : Disbursal of social security pensions to beneficiaries under various categories will commence on April 3 and be completed by April 6. Besides a few exceptional cases, all other beneficiaries have been asked to collect their pensions from the village and ward secretariats.
An order was issued to this effect to all the district officials on Tuesday evening. The staff at the village and ward secretariats will operate from 9 am to 7 pm every day till the pensions are fully disbursed. The finance department has made arrangements for withdrawing funds on April 3 forenoon.
In case of beneficiaries who are specially-abled, severely ill, bedridden, confined to wheelchair, elderly widows of war veterans drawing Sainik welfare pensions, the village and ward secretariat staff will hand over the financial aid to them at their doorsteps.
Further, district collectors were instructed to take a decision on distributing pensions to beneficiaries under the category of “habitations far away from the village secretariats.” In certain districts, especially in Alluri Sitarama Raju and Parvathipuram-Manyam, where number of tribal habitations are more in comparison to secretariats, and where the beneficiaries will have to travel long distances to reach the secretariats, the district collectors will take up an exercise to identify government offices other than the village and ward secretariats and make arrangements for giving pensions.
As per the circular, the staff will disburse the pension amount after duly obtaining Aadhaar Authentication (biometric/Iris/face). In case of failure of Aadhaar authentication, pension will be disbursed by the welfare and education assistant and ward welfare development secretaries through the Real-time Beneficiary Identification System (RBIS) mode.
The disbursement of pension will not be publicised and the staff have been asked to strictly adhere to the Model Code of Conduct. Soon after the Election Commission of India issued orders barring the State government from utilising the services of village and ward volunteers for the disbursement of social security pensions, the Chief Secretary’s office was flooded with letters and messages, seeking alternative arrangements to ensure there is no delay in disbursement of pensions.
Meanwhile, a circular issued by Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) CEO stating that pensions will be paid at the village and ward secretariats only by the secretariat staff further complicated the situation as several people complained that distributing pension at the doorsteps of the beneficiaries is necessary, at least for certain categories.
Subsequently, Chief Secretary KS Jawahar Reddy held a video conference with district collectors to explore various options for disbursement of the pensions, including DBT (Aadhar-enabled Payment System), door-to-door distribution, and disbursal at the secretariats.
Difficulties in doorstep delivery of pensions through secretariat staff, high ratio of pensioners to employees, staff pre-occupied with election-related work as BLOs, heat wave condition prevailing in certain districts were among some of the issues that were discussed.
The officials concluded that the DBT framework was not feasible for distributing pensions as scores of beneficiaries either did not have a bank account or have one that is inactive. In come cases, active bank accounts were not seeded. Door-to-door distribution, too, did not seem feasible given the lesser number of secretariat staff.
With the government making it clear that delay in the disbursement of pensions will not be acceptable, it was decided that beneficiaries, besides a few exceptions, will collect their pensions from secretariats.
PIL FILED IN HC
Three women from Guntur have filed a PIL in the High Court, seeking quash of ECI orders, which bar volunteers from disbursing pensions. Chief Secretary, CEC, CEO of the State & Citizens for Democracy were listed as respondents. A bench of the Chief Justice will hear the plea on Wednesday.