BHUBANESWAR: Days after the video of an elderly woman walking barefoot with the support of a plastic chair to collect her pension from Jharigaon branch of SBI went viral prompting Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to take the bank authorities to task, the Odisha government has asked banks to share transaction data and ensure payment at the doorsteps in case of failure in disbursement of social security pension.
The direction came after reports of inconvenience faced by some pensioners of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) department who are paid through direct benefit transfer (DBT). The beneficiaries had failed to withdraw cash at the points of business correspondents (BC) due to failure in Aadhaar authentication. The pensioners had resented strongly as they had to return empty handed for no fault of theirs.
Sources said, issues regarding easy monitoring of transactions were thoroughly discussed at a recent bankers’ meet and the banks were directed to compile all transaction data relating to disbursement of pension under National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) and Madhu Babu Pension Yojana (MBPY). As decided, banks will compile and share information on failure of withdrawal due to authentication issues everyday and ensure the beneficiaries are paid their pension through withdrawal slip at their doorsteps within the next 24 hours. The exercise will also help rectify Aadhaar particulars of such beneficiaries within 15 days and resolve issues before next payment.
At the meeting, secretary of SSEPD department Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma expressed concern over inconveniences faced by DBT beneficiaries during cash withdrawal at BC points due to failure in Aadhaar authentication. Since banks can fetch the data of DBT failure instances through Aadhaar both in cases of NSAP and MBPY as all such transactions are registered in bank server with Aadhaar, he asked the banks to share all failure data with the department on a real-time basis for monitoring and ensuring the beneficiaries are not affected.
The state has nearly 48 lakh beneficiaries, including 28 lahks under MBPY and around 20 lahks under NSAP. Most of the old-age beneficiaries in remote areas where banks and internet facilities are not available faces a lot of inconvenience due to authentication issues.authentication issues.