Post-lockdown sees spike from 30-40 applicants per day to 100

Mysore/Mysuru: Hundreds of people gather every day at the Taluk Office at Mini Vidhana Soudha in Nazarbad to submit applications for social welfare pensions directly credited to the bank accounts by the State Government. 

Arrangements are made for the public, mostly senior citizens, by lining up chairs in the corridors to avoid crowding. 

The pensions include social security pensions like widow pension, old age pension, disabled pension and other financial aids such as Sandhya Suraksha scheme, Manaswini and Maithri among others. 

Long queues are usually seen every day from 9.30 am. Due to COVID, the office employees are taking enough precautions too. Instead of allowing beneficiaries and applicants to crowd in front of their desks, section officers and assistants are themselves coming to the corridors wearing masks to receive applications. 

Conversing with the applicants, the applications are checked, verified along with the attached documents and ID proofs. If the documents are not in order, the applicants are asked to re-attach them and then come here for re-submission. 

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, Social Security Pension Scheme (Samajika Bhadratha Yojana) Shirastedar Ningappa said that following lockdown, submission of applications was zero and after the curbs were lifted from July 5, nearly 100 people are submitting new applications while others are re-submitting their updated applications.

Prior to lockdown, over 30 to 40 people used to submit applications and post lockdown, rush is seen every day. “This is a normal routine process in the office here. The rush is, however, subsiding,” he added. 

Speedy disbursal of benefits

Applications are submitted after linking Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts and updating their bank pass books. These documents are necessary for speedy disbursal of benefits, which will be credited to the beneficiaries’ bank account directly, he said.

Sometimes, beneficiaries fail to link their Aadhaar to bank accounts and would not have submitted their Life Certificates. “If this is the case, the pensions would be suspended. It is important for beneficiaries to submit applications along with copies of pension order, pension slips distributed by postmen, Aadhaar, bank account passbook and post-office passbook,” he added. 

Once the applications are received, officials will approve such pensions, link the beneficiary’s bank account to Treasury-2 and the staff will update the details to the official portal so that the money is transferred to the beneficiary bank accounts on seniority basis every month, Ningappa said.

Treasury-1 and 2

There are one lakh pension beneficiaries in Mysuru City and Taluk and Treasury-1 Office was handling such schemes earlier and used to send money through postal money orders. Now, the process has gone online and Treasury-2 is handling such schemes, he added. 

Verification of documents are also made with Revenue Officers and Panchayat Development Officers visiting the addresses mentioned in the application as sometimes beneficiaries would have moved to a different address. Ningappa said that it would take a day or two to upload the applications and documents onto the Government portal.

The Office is headed by Grade-2 Tahsildar K.R. Rathnambika along with Shirastedar Ningappa and has three computer operators outsourced from a private firm to upload the applications and documents onto the portal.