About 1.3 crore pensioners generate digital life certificates

New Delhi: A whopping 1.3 crore digital life certificates were generated during a month-long special campaign by the government to further simplify the process for pensioners across the country.

The Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) successfully concluded the digital life certificate (DLC) campaign 3.0 on November 30, a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry said.

It was launched to simplify digital life certificate submissions, particularly for super senior pensioners, it said.

The campaign is the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the digital empowerment of pensioners and to further increase their ease of living, said V Srinivas, secretary of DoPPW.

“Under the leadership and guidance of Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, the DLC campaign 3.0 was India’s largest campaign held in 800 district headquarters with 1,900 camp locations and 1,100 nodal officers.

“An all-time high 130 lakh pensioners submitted their DLCs, with 39 lakh DLCs submitted through face authentication technology,” Srinivas told news agency.

He said the State Bank of India reached a landmark of 11 lakh DLCs, Punjab National Bank 2.75 lakh DLCs, and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) 7.5 lakh DLCs.

Each of the 17 pension disbursing banks achieved over 40 per cent DLCs during the campaign, said Srinivas, a 1989 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Rajasthan cadre.

The campaign was a success because all stakeholders -- the Controller General of Defence Accounts, Railways, IPPB, banks, pensioners’ welfare associations, Employees Provident Fund Organisation, and Unique Identification Authority of India came together to work for a collective cause, he added.