Kakinada: 1,700 aged persons deprived of pensions

Kakinada: More than 1,700 aged persons could not get their pensions for the past three months as their fingerprints have not been captured by the machines.

According to sources, due to old-age and years of hard work at places of work, the machines could not capture their fingerprints.

Unless the fingerprints are captured properly by the machines, the ward volunteers cannot disburse the pension amounts. Thus they are being deprived of the monthly pension.

Many aged people badly in need of the pension face these problems with the biometric system being used now. The ward volunteers in urban areas and the village volunteers in the rural areas are not able to do anything to help such pensioners.

According to government norms, if any beneficiary could not get the pension continuously for three months, he or she could lose their pension automatically. The beneficiaries who are facing non-capturing of fingerprint problems are worried over their pension.

"Though the ward volunteer made several attempts, the machine did not accept my fingerprints and he could not disburse my pension amount. I took the pension for the past eight years. But due to non-payment of my pension for the last 3 months, I am facing a lot of problems to buy medicines for medical treatment and attend to my other needs," says a local resident P Ratnam. She requested the officials to see that the monthly pension is restored to her.

East Godavari District DRDA Project Director Y Hariharanath said that the department had identified nearly 1,700 such beneficiaries who are suffering due to the non-capture of their fingerprints and they had already brought the issue to the notice of the State government. He also said that the problem would be sorted out one or two days.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that for those whose fingerprints are yet to be captured, the State government is planning to distribute the Old-age pension to them through the Real Time Beneficiary Information System (RTBIS).