Social security pension through banks hailed

Over 250 beneficiaries in Palathurai Village of Madukkarai block on the outskirts of Coimbatore city are appreciative of the new system

The State government’s initiative of getting social security pension disbursed through banks has gone down well with beneficiaries.

“Now I get full pension without deduction. Earlier, I had to wait either in the corridors of post office or be at the mercy of the postman who deducted at least Rs.50 from my pension,” said A. Pandiammal of Kadhiranampatti in Mullipadi panchayat in Dindigul disitrict.

“Now, the bank staff bring pension to my door step,” she says.

P. Chinnapandi, a native of Odaipatti village in Chinnamanur union in the neighbouring Theni district, says “Under the old system, when I failed to visit the post office on a particular date, I have to shell out more money to get my pension. At times, a section of the staff told me tersely that my pension would even be returned. No longer do I have such a threat. I need not draw full pension at a time. These are the benefits of disbursal of pension through bank,” says the senior citizen, who has suffered paralysis

Likewise, over 250 beneficiaries in Palathurai Village of Madukkarai block on the outskirts of Coimbatore city are appreciative of the new system.

Pointing out that 135 villages have been covered, Coimbatore Collector M. Karunagaran says efforts are on to cover the remaining 92 villages. However, there are some issues that the beneficiaries want the authorities to be addressed. They want the biometric cards to be made ATM-enabled so that they can draw the money at the time of their convenience. Besides, there are some technical hitches in authentication of biometric details. Krishnasami, a beneficiary in Coimbatore district, says he is facing problems in terms of inaccurate registration of his thumb impression. “Because of age, my hands are shaky and the thumb impression never gets tallied at the first instance and I have to make repeated attempts. This consumes a lot of time,” he says.

Business correspondents too have an issue. Sumathi of Thondamuthur in Coimbatore is sore that her services are not yet fully utilised. She is not just content on serving beneficiaries of the social security pension schemes but also on covering beneficiaries of other schemes.