J-K govt to settle over 90,000 pending pension cases: Min

The Jammu and Kashmir government today said it would clear over 90,000 pending pension cases under the National Family Benefit Scheme shortly.
"Currently there are 98,963 registered cases under NSAP scheme and 9,133 cases under National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) pending with the department," state minister for Social Welfare Bali Bhagat said while replying to the grants of Social Welfare department in the Legislative Assembly.
He said to clear these cases, an amount of Rs 74.27 crore was required which includes Rs 24 crore as state share.
He said, he has already made a request to the Union Minister for Rural Development for providing the Central share for clearing the liability and he has assured for the same.

Bhagat said the previous rate of pension was Rs 200 and Rs 500 for widows under Central and state schemes.
"The government has already announced the enhancement of rates and now these categories will get Rs 1,000 per month," he said.

He said that in order to ensure complete transparency in the system, the government will introduce e-governance (smart governance).
The government has also started on pilot basis in six districts the payment of pension through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) under Indira Gandhi Old Age Pension Scheme.
"The scheme will be rolled out in all the districts from the current fiscal," he said.

He said the online facility mechanism for filling up the applications for various schemes, programmes will also be started and status of the applications shall be updated after every 15 days on the departmental website to facilitate the beneficiaries.