Raj stops pension to 3.8 lakh people as money didn't reach

The Rajasthan government has discontinued the social sector pension to over 3 lakh 80 thousand recipients after finding that the money was not reaching the intended beneficiaries.
Minister for social justice and empowerment Arun Chaturvedi shared these details in the state assembly after an MLA of the ruling BJP, Ghanshyam Tiwari, raised the issue saying discontinuation of pensions was causing hardships to many people.
Chaturvedi said that the government had conducted a verification drive in 17 of the state's 33 districts last year to check whether the pension was reaching the intended beneficiaries.
He said that after the drive the pension given to around 4.18 lakh beneficiaries was stopped on various grounds that included migration, change in address, problems with bank accounts or death of the actual recipient.

There were 1,79,798 cases where pension was stopped on the ground of death, Chaturvedi said.
However, after re-verification, around 38,000 persons were found to be actual beneficiaries whose pensions were stopped on invalid grounds.

"The remaining were not eligible for pension," the minister said.
He said for those people, whose pension was stopped wrongly, arrears would be paid and the pension would be resumed.
Tiwari demanded that action be taken against officials who were responsible for wrongly discontinuing the social security pension.
It was an attempt to malign the image of the government, he claimed.
The minister said that the district collectors have been asked to take action against the responsible personnel.