Punjab government has made Aadhaar Cards mandatory in place of Ration Cards for all Financial Assistance scheme besides introducing new forms to get the benefit of old age pensions.
Giving this information at Chandigarh, a government spokesman said that the step has been taken by the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to ensure that only genuine people get the benefits of pension and other financial assistance schemes.
He said, the Chief Minister has also directed the Department of Social Security and Women & Child Development to undertake a survey of the existing beneficiaries of various schemes besides review of beneficiaries of Aata-Dal Scheme to weed out the ineligible beneficiaries.
The existing pensioners, however, will continue to get the pension benefits till the lists are reviewed, he added.
He said that in as per new norms, the process for both urban and rural pensions is being simplified with the applicants only required to provide a self-declaration instead of the current system of verification from the area municipal councillor in case of urban pensioners and two panchayat members in case of rural pensioners.He said that the government has also decided recover double the pension amount from those applicants who furnish wrong details.He said that action would also be taken against the officer who includes ineligible beneficiaries.
The spokesman said that the government has also decided to introduce a quarterly pension system to bring about more transparency.