Shimla
Another significant scam has surfaced in Himachal Pradesh under the guise of pensions. During the initial round, 1,438 state pensioners’ documents were examined and judged to be questionable. The startling fact is that 1,141 of these pensioners had ages in the documents that range from 104 to 124 years old. A pension of Rs 1,700 is paid to each of these retirees each month. Every quarter, the recipients’ savings accounts and the post office receive a direct deposit of this pension sum.
Actually, 8.18 lakh people in the state across a variety of categories receive security pensions from the Social Justice and Empowerment Department. Two lakh of these pensioners are being the focus of an investigation. Social Security pension applicants in the state submit their applications on paper to the Tehsil Welfare Officer. The District Welfare Officer then receives it from the Welfare Officer. The application has been posted online. Each district has established a committee for approval, with an MLA serving as the chairperson.
The committee’s current chairperson in the Shimla district is Rampur Nandlal, a Congress MLA. Accordingly, each district has a different MLA chairperson who reviews the reports of the relevant officers before approving the applicants’ requests for security pensions. Currently, there is suspicion that fraud is occurring under the names of numerous applicants. Only after an investigation will it be clear that numerous individuals will be involved in this. Many of the department’s officers and staff have been anxious since this catastrophe was made public.
According to Kiran Bhadana, Director of the Directorate of Empowerment of Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, Minorities, and Specially Abled, inconsistencies were discovered in 37 widow pension cases and 260 old age pension cases under the e-Kalyan portal during the interim inspection. In addition, all the state’s district welfare officials have been ordered to look into 1,438 incidents in total and forward them to the Directorate of Information within a week. Additionally, instructions have been issued to verify the documentation of 25% of all pensioners.
