New mechanism for pension disbursement in Punjab: Majithia

"With the aim of reducing inconvenience in obtaining old age pensions, Punjab Government has come up with an improved disbursement mechanism," Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia said while addressing people in Hadiatpura village in Majitha constituency.

"To rid people of all inconvenience it has been decided that representatives of the banks would approach people to ensure timely disbursement of pensions," the minister said.

Majithia said that initially, the old age, widow and handicap pensions were disbursed by Sarpanches (village headmen) but it was observed that people often failed to get their pensions on time.

The state government then initiated the process of disbursement of pensions via banks, he said.

However, this mechanism too had drawbacks as people felt harassed to go to the banks every time to get the pensions, he said.

Therefore the new system will be introduced to remove all inconvenience related to receiving pension, he said.

This system has been adopted on pilot basis in some blocks and has been successful, he said, adding, it would now be implemented in the entire state.

Majithia asked people for to support the anti-drugs campaign started by him.