PUDUCHERRY: In the wake of the detection of ineligible beneficiaries claiming widow and destitute pension, Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on Tuesday directed the administration to regularly verify the implementation of welfare schemes to ensure that the benefits are going to the right persons and that no one is cheating the system.
The LG also directed the administration to form a verification team in every department for the purpose, as normally people do not want to come forward to complain against others. A courageous person blew the whistle to let her know that women who are getting destitute pension credited into their bank accounts are not destitute. People should not be allowed to cheat the government’s well intentioned polices, she said adding that a system of recovery of falsely received benefits must be put in place by the departments concerned.
Protection of public money is a sacred duty of all public servants, elected or appointed, she said and added that the implementation of the recovery system will lead to considerable savings in public funding and the real deserving and waiting could benefit from this course of correction. The object of this sustained review is to ensure that the benefits go only to the needy and deserving and not to the ineligible, she added.
This direction was given by the Lt Governor after the Puducherry Social Welfare department stopped widow and destitute pension for 60 percent of beneficiaries in a village after finding them faking their eligibility on Monday.
Following a complaint from a whistle blower that some women in a particular village are receiving widow pension (approximately Rs 2000 per month) when they are not eligible, Bedi directed the social welfare department to conduct an inquiry. “The whistle blower even gave the names of such women and households,” said Bedi who did not disclose the name of the village.
“On cross-checking, the Secretary Social Welfare Uday Kumar reported via a virtual meeting that 60 percent of the households verified were found to be faking their eligibility. They were claiming the pension for a long time falsely,” said Bedi.
The whistle blower in his petition has also mentioned that this kind of deception was going on under the protection of “influential persons”.
The Secretary informed that seeing this situation, he will devise a regular survey team to cross-check on a random basis to save government funds being swindled in this manner when more needy cases may be waiting to be included.