SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has 126 erstwhile employees of the state who are centurions and drawing pensions, a government survey revealed. There are 24,400 pensioners aged between 80 and 90 years, 2,500 pensioners aged between 90 and 100 years, and 126 pensioners who are over 100 years old.
(The video is about the erstwhile senior pensioner who is no more)
The erstwhile state has 2.38 lakh pensioners. The survey was carried out by the finance department to verify the pensioners as part of the routine process, a DIPR statement said. The survey is aimed at streamlining the disbursal of pensions.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, there are about 2.38 lakh pensioners and family pensioners and most of them have opted for disbursal through JK Bank,” the statement said. “As per the mandatory rules, the pensioners are submitting life certificates each year. Further, the Principal Accountant General’s office had been repeatedly stressing this issue of deficiencies in annual verification.”
In the last three weeks, the statement said the verification has been started at all the treasuries and sub-treasuries. For alleviating difficulties of old pensioners who are unable to reach, the Treasury staff are visiting their homes for such verification.
“The treasuries and sub-treasuries are also guiding the pensioners to use the online Apps/portals of Jeevan Pramaan which have been started by the Central Government for facilitation of pensioners,” the statement said. “Jeevan Pramaan uses the Aadhaar platform for biometric authentication of pensioners and family pensioners and generating Digital Life Certificate automatically. But currently, out of 2.38 lakh pensioners, only 4162 pensioners in Jammu and Kashmir use Jeevan Pramaan app for certification. Hence the Treasury staff is also informing and guiding the pensioners about downloading the App for their convenience.”
After three weeks, 44700 pensioners and family pensioners have been verified by the treasuries and their data has been digitally updated. This constitutes about 20 per cent of the entire work which is expected to be completed by the end of September 2024.
Such physical verification is helping in not only updating the pensioners’ data with the government but also switching over to online verification in future. This verification is also identifying any ineligible case which otherwise may result in over drawls and subsequent recoveries. “By July 27, about 70 cases have been detected against whom recoveries of Rs 61 lakh due to excess pension/ allowances have been initiated,” the statement said.