Verification of pensioners done at their doorstep using app: Karnataka government

The State government on Monday advised the High Court of Karnataka that senior residents eligible for varied pension schemes of the State are usually not required to go to both banks or government places of work for verification or to provide life certificates as these steps are done at their doorstep by the village accountants using a cellular app known as Navodaya.

The government additionally advised the court docket that in total interval of final 12 months’s lockdown and thereafter, eligible senior citizen pensioners weren’t requested to provide life certificates and the pension quantity was transferred to their financial institution accounts via the Direct Benefit Transfer technique.

A press release on this regard was made earlier than a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindara in the course of the listening to of a PIL petition filed by Akhila Karnataka Vyyovrudhara Okkoota, an organisation working for the social safety of the aged within the State.

The verification of pensioners, together with beneath the old-age pension and Sandhya Suraksha schemes, is done at their doorstep and their picture and particulars of existence done via the cellular app by village accountants, the government acknowledged.

“The State, in fact, has disbursed the entire pension amount liable to be paid to all senior citizens in Karnataka up to the month of May 2021, and there is no due of pension payable,” Deputy Director of Social Security and Pension Department acknowledged in an affidavit submitted to the court docket.

Meanwhile, the Bench directed the government to submit its response on the court docket’s earlier question on extending precedence advantages to senior residents, together with remedy for COVID-19, beneath the provisions of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.