Vizianagaram: Technical glitches hit distribution of pensions

Vizianagaram: The distribution of pensions at the doorstep of beneficiaries has created confusion among the officials. The reason was officials received complaints on distributing the pensions at Panchayat offices instead of doorstep of the beneficiary.

The staff of Panchayatraj have not prepared completely and didn't follow the instructions given by the government. Village secretaries in Jami, Seethanagaram and some other areas have not monitored the door-to-door distribution of pensions. The staff in Jami and Seethanagaram simply called the beneficiaries to Sachivalayam and started distributing the pensions. This leads to confusion among beneficiaries and they have questioned the staff. Senior citizens have argued with staff at Bobbili and Salur for missing their names in the beneficiaries list. P Murali Krishna, MPDO of Kurupam said the staff have faced difficulty with biometric equipment due to malfunction.

Irked with the complaints, Collector M Harijawaharlal surrendered the District Panchayati Officer B Satyanarayana and appointed P Sunil Rajkumar as in-charge DPO. This district has distributed 80.40 per cent of pensions at the end of day and stood in sixth position in all over the state. Kadapa district got first position by distributing 85.66 per cent of pensions. The collector later warned the staff that the government won't tolerate negligence in duties and would take serious action on official concerned. On the otherhand, the village volunteers have distributed pensions at doorstep in the district. The district administration has made elaborate arrangements for implementing the scheme.

In the state, out of 53,94,045 pensions, 41,86,523 pensions are distributed at the end of the day registering a 77.61 percentile.