It takes a life for Punjab Govt to release Rs 84 cr for pensioners

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 20

Two days after delay in pension drove an octogenarian from Dhilwan, near Kapurthala, to committing suicide, the Punjab Government today disbursed Rs 84 crore for distribution as old-age pension.

The Finance Department has also sanctioned the remaining amount (around Rs 120 crore due from January-March 2015), which will be disbursed shortly.

Somnath, 83, had set himself ablaze on Saturday, highlighting the plight of 19.82 lakh pensioners in the state who are awaiting their monthly instalment since September 2014 as the state Social Welfare Department was busy linking their bank accounts with Aadhar cards to weed out fake claimants.

For this, sources said, the government had been working with various banks and the exercise should have been completed by December 2014, but due to several glitches, the deadline was extended till March 2015. “Though glitches continue to hamper the process, we have released the pending old-age pension from October to December to all Deputy Commissioners today,” a senior official in the Social Security Department told The Tribune.

A meeting with bankers, too, has been called on April 23, to discuss the speedy rollout of the pension disbursal into bank accounts of pensioners.

Of the 19.82 lakh pensioners in the state, 13.6 lakh are old-age pensioners alone.