The total number of beneficiaries of various social security schemes of the State government has come down over the last three years.
When the financial year 2013-14 ended in March 2014, their strength was around 36.24 lakh. Bucking the trend of increasing number of welfare scheme beneficiaries, as on March 31,2017, the figure has come down to around 29.75 lakh, according to the current year’s performance budget of the Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme department, which was tabled on the floor of the Assembly last week.
Steep rise
In fact, when the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government returned to office in May 2011, the subsequent two years saw a huge jump of nearly 12.5 lakh beneficiaries. In 2011, the figure was around 23.7 lakh, and on assumption of office, the AIADMK regime had doubled the amount of social security pension from ₹500 to ₹ 1,000. Alarmed at the steep increase in the number of beneficiaries, the authorities, in 2014, decided to carry out verification and enforce rules of the scheme vigorously.
During the drive, 2.5-3 lakh beneficiaries were removed, says a senior official of the department. While one set of beneficiaries was ineligible to receive the pension, another category fell under the category of those who died or migrated; duplication was another factor.
However, the official could not explain fully the reasons for the decline of the strength by about 6.5 lakh members.
Consequent to the fall in the strength, the expenditure incurred by the State government went down from around ₹4,254 crore in 2013-14 to ₹ 3,732 crore in 2016-17.
Insistence on Aadhaar
When pointed out that the citizen charter of the department, which was also tabled in the Assembly, referred to the production of the Aadhaar document (or ration card) at the time of application, the official said that “there is no compulsion on any prospective beneficiary to present a copy of the Aadhaar document. The Aadhaar numbers are sought from applicants for the purpose of better implementation of our schemes and avoid duplication.” He adds that the data of nearly 96% of the existing beneficiaries have been linked with those of Aadhaar.
