Delhi government has started a verification drive to identify and weed out ineligible beneficiaries of its old age pension scheme covering around 4.4 lakh senior citizens, officials said on Saturday.
The verification process was to begin earlier, but it was halted as permission for Aadhaar authentication of the beneficiaries via a third party was not allowed.
Now, the third party is carrying out door-to-door biometric beneficiary verification after receiving permission, said a senior functionary of the Delhi government.
“The verification exercise will conclude in three months and we expect to create 20-25 per cent vacancies out of the total 4.4 lakh beneficiaries after weeding out the deceased and duplicate beneficiaries getting other government assistance besides the old age pension,” he said.
The government currently provides a monthly pension of Rs 2,000 to senior citizens aged between 60 and 69 years, while those aged 70 years and above are entitled to Rs 2,500 per month.
Earlier this year, the government’s Social Welfare Department signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Common Service Centre (CSC), which operates around 6,000 centres across the city for the survey.
The CSC network will assist the department in carrying out the verification process at beneficiaries’ residences.
During the verification exercise, the survey teams will visit the registered beneficiaries door-to-door and conduct biometric authentication using fingerprint and iris scanners.
They will also capture live photographs of the beneficiaries and update their records through electronic documentation, officials added.
