Sir,
It has refrence to the Article “PPO= Pensioners’ Punishment Order” by Kewal Krishan Khajuria, published in your esteemed daily on 22.08.2024.
The author has highlighted the agony of the pensioners, particularly in the context of the Physical Verification of J&K UT pensioners.
The physical verification of the pensioners goes against the concept of Digital India. In an era where most of the services are On Line and even the process of Digital Life Certificate has been introduced to benefit the pensioners, parading the Senior Citizens in hot and humid conditions defies logic and negates the initiatives of the Central Government. The Government’s claim that it is to do away with the descrepencies and save exchequer is also not tenable.
The department can ascertain if a pensioner is alive by Aadhar based biometric. In case of other descripencies, the PPOs lie with banks and can be verified there. Photographing senior pensioners, particularly those who are faced with demnetia and those who cannot stand without support, at treasuries and even at home cannot rectify descrepencies.
There are thousands of pensioners who have address in the UT but are staying outside with children as they need support. Such pensioners are most harassed. The stoic silence of the Union Minister hailing from UT is also mysterious. Government needs to revisit the policy even at this stage to rectify its mistake.
S M Pandit
Jammu
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