New Delhi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday announced a nationwide campaign for pensioners for submission of digital life certificates (DLC) and use of face authentication application.
"In Amrit Kaal, a digitally empowered pensioner would enable creation of a digitally empowered nation," he said.
Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said submission of life certificates is an important activity to be carried out by pensioners every year in November to ensure continuity of their pension. There is a special provision for pensioners aged 80 years and above to submit their life certificates in October.
In the traditional mode, pensioners had to visit the pension disbursing authority to physically submit their life certificate, and this was inconvenient, particularly for the old and ailing, he said.
Further, there was no mechanism through which pensioners could get a status on update of their life certificates in officials records, the minister said.
He said to enhance the "ease of living" of central government pensioners, the government has been promoting the use of digital life certificate Jeevan Pramaan, extensively.
Initially, the government launched a system to submit DLCs using biometrics. It then developed a face-recognition technology system based on Aadhaar database, which makes it possible to give a DLC from any android-based smartphone, the minister said.