• Source:JND
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The District Social Welfare Department in Greater Noida continued transferring pension amounts under the Old Age Pension Scheme to the bank accounts of 82 beneficiaries even after their death. This discrepancy came to light during a verification campaign initiated after the government’s directives. The department has now written to the banks where these amounts were transferred, requesting transaction details.

The relatives of the deceased beneficiaries did not inform either the bank or the department about the deaths. 

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In Gautam Buddh Nagar, 14,881 individuals are registered under the Old Age Pension Scheme. Due to the target not being increased, several eligible applicants have their forms pending. This situation prevails in many other districts across the state. To ensure that eligible beneficiaries receive the benefits of the scheme, the government launched a verification campaign for all registered pensioners. Deceased beneficiaries will be removed from the list and eligible pending applicants will be added in their place.

The department began the verification drive on April 1. By April 28, verification of 5,214 out of the 14,881 registered pensioners had been completed. Out of these, 82 were found to be deceased. Despite their deaths, pension amounts had continued to be transferred into their accounts for the past six months. At a fixed monthly pension rate of Rs 1,000, around Rs 4.49 lakh had been sent to the accounts of these deceased individuals over six months.

Following this, the District Social Welfare Department has requested transaction details from the respective banks. The department sought information on whether the pension amounts were withdrawn after the beneficiary’s death.

“Verification of registered pensioners was also carried out six months ago. Those found deceased in the current verification round had died after the last verification. During the current process, the department has gathered information from relatives, including the date of death and other relevant details. Bank statements of the deceased beneficiaries’ accounts have also been requested. Only after reconciling these statements will it be clear how many months of pension were deposited into each deceased individual’s account,” Jagran.com quoted District Social Welfare Officer Satish Kumar as saying. 

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Out of the total 14,881 registered pensioners in the district, only 5,214 have been verified so far. The verification of the remaining 9,667 pensioners is still pending. This suggests that the number of deceased beneficiaries may rise as the verification continues.