Pension verification
Bivek Mathur
JAMMU, July 31: The Finance Department has advised the co-morbid and those pensioners who are living outside the UT not to visit the treasuries here in panic for their physical verification as the same is not required.
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The Department clarified that while special arrangements have been made for the co-morbid pensioners for their physical verification at their doorsteps as fresh circular notifying the process of verification for the pensioners living outside the UT is likely to be issued shortly.
A senior Finance Department official said that the Department has already put it in the public domain through a section of media that verification of people suffering from various ailments and those over 80 years old would be carried out by the specially deployed officials.
“But we’re still witnessing a large number of people suffering from various ailments visiting the treasuries in panic. This should be avoided,” he advised.
A Treasury official told the Excelsior on condition of anonymity that the staff deployed for verifying the co-morbid and over 80 years old pensioners and family pensioners has been confirming their individuality through geo-tagged photos.
“As far as pensioners living outside the UT are concerned, the department has already discussed their concerns in several meetings so far and it is in the process of issuing a fresh circular notifying the process for their verification most probably within their States/UTs itself,” he said.
Mahesh Dass, Director General, Accounts and Treasuries, Finance Department, Jammu and Kashmir, also confirmed that the co-morbid pensioners are not required to visit the treasuries, as according to him, specific arrangements have been made for their convenience.
“And we’re shortly going to take a call on assisting the pensioners living outside J&K,” he said.
Regarding the purpose of physical verification-to check for discrepancies and fraudulent withdrawals-Dass affirmed that several such cases have been detected and necessary actions will be taken to address them.
Official sources indicated that there are a total of 234,000 pensioners in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, with most having accounts in J&K Bank.
“So far, around 45,000 pensioners have been verified, revealing some discrepancies in pension withdrawals in some cases. The department will make provisions to recover amounts from incorrect beneficiaries,” sources said.
According to the Government data, there are 24,400 pensioners aged 80-90, 2,500 aged 90-100, and 126 aged over 100 in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
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