Karnataka identifies 3.58 lakh bogus pension beneficiaries, saves Rs 430 cr

Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka on Saturday said the government has been able to identify 3.58 lakh ineligible and bogus beneficiaries of social security pensions, which has led to savings worth Rs 430 crore.

The state at present offers nine monthly pensions, including old age, disability, widows, unmarried/divorced women, transgenders, acid attack victims and endosulfan patients.

"We are using our Navodaya app to review pension beneficiaries, the data is linked to the ration database and e-Janma (births and deaths) database. This has made it possible to identify ineligible pensioners, including those who are dead," Ashoka said.

He said there are 73.23 lakh beneficiaries in the state and in 2020-21, the government spent Rs 7,800 crore on pension payments, which is expected to go up to Rs 9,483.51 crore this year.

Claiming to have initiated India's first new paperless system in which pension applicants will be onboarded within 72 hours, the minister said, "It's called Hello Revenue Minister, where one needs to call a toll free number to place their request using Aadhaar. It will then be transferred to the village accountant, who will visit the applicant and verify, following this the pension order approved by the deputy tahsildar will be sent to the applicant."

Noting that the 72-hour pension facility may have to wait for people in Bengaluru, he said this is because there are no village accountants in the city but plans are afoot to tie up with private aggregators like Swiggy, Dunzo or government-run Jana Sevaka scheme to deliver pensions.