Pension paid to dead for years, accounts taken out of SBI

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He said that this was due to certain irregularities on the part of SBI, such as paying pension to more than 3,000 deceased pensioners for many years after their death, payment of wrong amount of pension to many pensioners,  delayed payment of revised dearness relief, and loss of more than 1,100 original disbursers’ portion of PPOs, or payment pension orders.

On account of these irregularities, more than Rs 16 crore has already been recovered from SBI, the minister said.

In order to prevent any difficulties for the pensioners, they have been advised to open an account in any bank of their choice from among the banks authorised to disburse pensions, Rijiju said. The banks have also been advised to approach such pensioners and open their accounts on priority by June 30, he said.

As for those pensioners who have not opened a new account in banks other than SBI till June 30, State Bank of India will continue to disburse their pension so that the pensioners need not face any hardship, the minister added.