The State government’s plan to disburse social security pensions through post offices (in urban areas) seems to have fallen in place, with the approach adopted by the postal and municipal authorities, who have overcome the initial hiccups in its implementation.
The scheme, which was rolled out on December 15, witnessed a massive turnout of pensioners at Tirupati Head Post Office and Municipal Corporation, resulting in a complete chaos at the venues. Officials found it tough to placate the despondent pensioners, who awaited their two months due, owing to the gap in communication and a mismatch in the mapping of beneficiaries.
Many of the beneficiaries, suffering from ailments owing to old age, had to wait patiently in line to get their issues sorted out, while others had to travel to other post offices for disbursal of pensions.
This was later solved by Superintendent of Posts (Tirupati Division) T.A.V. Sarma and Municipal Commissioner T. Sakala Reddy, who held a joint meeting and released a time table for facilitation of the process. As many as ten post offices in the city have been selected for registering the prospective pensioners.
FingerprintsSome centres had issues with the POTD instrument, as it took a considerable time in capturing the fingerprints of pensioners. “For some people, we had to clean their hands before going ahead with the capture. One out of the best fingerprints will be used for disbursal of pensions. In other cases, (such as people suffering from leprosy, handicapped etc.) the payments would be authenticated by Bill Collectors or Revenue Inspectors,” maintained the officials.
Out of the existing 8,027 pensions (old corporation limits), as many as 5,029 have been recommended to the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) and 4,964 have been finalised. The remaining cases will be verified and added to the list. Details of the wards and date of disbursement can be found in the respective post offices earmarked for the process.
