: Senior citizens, widows and differently-abled people who receive monthly pension from the three municipal corporations of Delhi will soon be required to submit details of their Aadhaar card.
The South and North Delhi municipal corporations are already collecting Aadhaar card details of pensioners as per the rules for direct benefit transfer (DBT) laid down by the Centre. Though the East Delhi Municipal Corporation has not been disbursing pensions due to a severe cash crunch, officials said the rule would apply to it as well.
While details of Aadhaar cards are being collected since a few months now, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation now plans to expedite the process. “Our staff will either go the homes of beneficiaries who cannot travel or collect Aadhaar card details on the site when the pension cheques are distributed,” said Parvesh Wahi, chairperson of the North Corporation’s Standing Committee.
Further delay?
At a meeting of the Standing Committee on Wednesday, councillors said that the already delayed pensions — the North Corporation owes its 70,000 beneficiaries from October 2014 — was being delayed further due to the Aadhaar card condition. Officials, however, clarified that Aadhaar cards would be mandatory for pension disbursement.
Some councillors, meanwhile, supported the move saying that linking Aadhaar cards to pensions would help weed out fake beneficiaries.
Yogender Chandolia, councillor from Dev Nagar and former Mayor, said that of the 750 beneficiaries in his ward, around 50 had passed away while many others had moved away.
“I managed to collect Aadhaar details of 481 people, who are genuine beneficiaries in the ward. Like this, each ward will reduce an average of 100 pensioners,” said Mr. Chandolia.
Even in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, which has about 80,000 pensioners, officials said the ongoing drive would lead to fewer beneficiaries remaining.
A senior SDMC official said that about 70 per cent of the work on collecting Aadhaar details was done.
