In its attempt to weed out bogus pensioners, the Delhi government has started scrutiny of people who are falsely availing old-age pension.
Former chief minister Sheila Dikshit Cabinet had approved old-age pension for extra 40,000 people, however, the government never initiated the scheme due to a number of reports about bogus pensioners.
‘We launched a survey to check the authenticity of the beneficiaries. There are reports that many people from outside Delhi have also enrolled for the scheme and are availing the pension facility illegally,’ Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung said on the sidelines of a function. ‘We will incorporate 40,000 more beneficiaries as promised by the government but after removing bogus beneficiaries, from the list’ he added.
During primary scrutiny, the officials found some people from Punjab, Haryana and UP availing pensions from the government scheme. More than 60,000 applications under the scheme are pending from a couple of years.
Jung said that presently, around 3.9 lakh beneficiaries are getting the old-age pensioners. Under the old age pension scheme, the government provides Rs 1,000 per month to every person who is above the age of 60-69 years and Rs 1,500 per month to those who are above the age of 70 years which is the highest in the country.