Relief at last

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It's been a long wait. The 3,700 beneficiaries, who were forced to go on without pension for two years at a stretch, are a happy lot.The beneficiaries were among the 14,900 new applicants which were passed in the City Corporation council under the Social Welfare Pension scheme from 2016. After a re-investigation last Christmas, only 7,000 new beneficiaries made it into the data entry list of government's social welfare pension website in the first phase.

"The pension was allotted to the new beneficiaries after verification procedures. Once the complete process is over, the remaining beneficiaries will also receive their pension," said Mayor VK Prasanth.
With this, the total number of pensioners receiving social security through the Corporation has risen to 74,974. Around 1,900 new applications were rejected owing to factors including death. The civic body recently held a pension Adalat at various zones of the Corporation to reconsider the applications of the rejected individuals.

"When I reached the Adalat at Fort zone with my application, the officials informed me that my pension application was rejected citing that a car has been registered in my name. No one from the Corporation had come to my home for the survey," said Shobha D, a beneficiary who has been trying for the widow pension for the past two years.

Earlier 2,467 beneficiaries were denied pension on the basis of a survey report submitted by an agency assigned by the government.The pension was cancelled based on death reports and registration of vehicles in their names. As per the pension scheme, any person in whose name vehicles above 1000 cc are registered is not eligible for the pension.

The Corporation's revenue inspector, health inspector along with the ward councillors conducted a house to house re-survey. Following this, the names of 2,000 beneficiaries were entered in the government's welfare pension website and their pensions disbursed,  said S S Sindhu, Welfare Standing Committee Chairperson.
The investigation procedure based on the Adalat will begin soon.The corporation officials are working on the new lists and are expecting to include almost all the genuine beneficiaries under the corporation limit by the next festive season.