E-Paper
Social security pensions distributed three to six months in advance in HP
₹217.86 crore, six months in advance, for beneficiaries in tribal areas and three months in other zones has been released
Shankaru Devi, aged 90, of Guhan village in Kangra district, was pleasantly surprised to hear a knock at her door and find the postman standing outside despite the curfew, with ₹4,500 of her pension paid three months in advance.
“The pension is my only financial support. I buy medicines and food with the money,” Devi said, referring to the state government’s special relief to 5.69 lakh social security beneficiaries following the Covid-19 lockdown.
Advance payment of ₹217.86 crore, six months in advance for beneficiaries in tribal areas and three months for other zones, has already been released in Himachal Pradesh.
Those benefiting from the government drive to disburse advance payments include 3.85 lakh senior citizens granted ₹154.24 crore; 1.20 lakh widows getting Rs. 40.21 crore and 63,495 persons with disabilities (PwDs) paid ₹23 crore.
A state government spokesperson said distributing funds to beneficiaries, especially in remote areas, had been a challenge because of the lockdown. However, the social justice and empowerment department and Indian postal service department had coordinated well to do the job. “It was indeed a daunting task carried out efficiently by the postal department personnel,” he said.
At present, there are 4.75 lakh savings accounts in post offices of social security beneficiaries and 93,768 beneficiaries have bank accounts in the state.
About 14,379 social security pensioners have been paid ₹10.39 crore in advance in the tribal areas of Pangi, Bharmour, Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur districts for the next six months.
About 4,3026 new pension cases have been approved.
Social security pension of widows and PwDs was also increased from ₹850 per month to Rs1,000 from April 1, 2020.
In addition, about 1,11,863 national social security beneficiaries of the state have been given ₹500 per head under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana by the Central government, for which ₹5.59 crore was sanctioned to the state. An additional sum of Rs. 500 per head will be released soon.
