Crowds at banks to collect pension, Kerala Minister mulls other ways

Thiruvananthapuram : After people started queuing up in front of banks to collect the social pension in large numbers on Monday, State Finance Minister Thomas Issac said that they will soon think of other ways to distribute it.

Right from morning, big queues have been seen in front of the banks and standing in were mostly aged people.

"Maintaining the accepted norms of social distancing in today's times has to be followed. This is not seen and done in the banks and hence, we will soon devise some other ways to distribute it," said Issac.

As part of Covid-19 package, Kerala government had announced two months advance payment of social security pension which will benefit about five million people.

Meanwhile, in a related development Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday held talks with a few state government employee unions and broached the idea of having a 'salary challenge' and the first response was encouraging.

Also on Monday the state government decided to allow permission to all courier agencies to operate in the state as online passes facility was opened by the Kerala Police for vehicles.