Moved by the plight of pensioners in obtaining their pensions, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has decided to make things convenient for them by commencing payment of monthly pensions at the doorsteps of beneficiaries from April 1, in the city.
Under a pilot project, the city has been identified by the State Government for disbursement of Social Security pensions at the doorstep of eligible beneficiaries under the NTR Bharosa Scheme.
The inconvenience faced by pensioners in getting pensions hit the headlines in the city recently, after three beneficiaries died while waiting for their turn at the pension distribution centres and post offices in December last. Senior citizens were made to wait in serpentine queues in the wee hours amid cold weather at the centres for collecting tokens.
Opposition parties had even staged demonstrations in front of the VMC head office, demanding that officials must do away with the cumbersome process. They wanted the corporation not to insist on Aadhaar seeding and fingerprint match.
Faced with the criticism, the VMC is working on introducing payment of pensions at doorsteps of the pensioners. There are 33,470 social security pensioners in the city, of these, nearly 15,000 pensioners have bank accounts.
Efforts were being made to open zero balance bank accounts for 18,470 pensioners, said VMC Commissioner G. Veerapandian at a meeting with VMC officials here on Tuesday.
Bank correspondents will be visiting the pensioners’ houses and deposit the amount in their accounts and facilitating them to withdraw the money through ATMs. Talks were also on with banks in the city limits to introduce the scheme effectively, he explained.
Bank correspondents will visit pensioners’ houses and deposit the amount in their accounts
Efforts being made to open zero balance bank accounts for 18,470 pensioners
