UP to verify Nirashrit Mahila pension beneficiaries
Nirashrit Mahila Pension Yojana
to weed out fake recipients and ensure that only genuine individuals are included, especially under the new Zero Poverty programme.
Principal secretary of
women welfare
, Leena Johri, has directed all divisional commissioners and district magistrates to complete the verification process by May 25. "The process will allow the govt to identify deceased and ineligible beneficiaries, who will be immediately removed from the list. Eligible beneficiaries will be regularly informed about their payment status through SMS notifications," said a govt spokesperson.
Aadhaar authentication
has also been made mandatory for all women receiving benefits under the scheme.
The verification will be carried out in three stages. In the first stage, verification of beneficiaries must be completed by May 10. In the second stage, a signed list along with a report must be submitted to the District Probation Officer by May 15. In the third and final stage, pensions of deceased and ineligible beneficiaries will be stopped by May 25.
The entire process will be supervised by all district magistrates. If any irregularities are found during verification, strict action will be taken against the responsible officers and employees, Johri said. Under the scheme, women who are over 18 years of age, whose husbands have passed away, and whose family's annual income does not exceed Rs 2 lakh are eligible. Beneficiaries must be residents of Uttar Pradesh.
The pension amount is directly transferred to the beneficiaries' Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. Initially, each beneficiary received Rs 500 per month, but from 2021-22, the amount was increased to Rs 1,000 per month. In 2016-17, around 17.31 lakh women were availing of the scheme's benefits. Currently, more than 34 lakh women are receiving pension benefits.
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