Delhi’s south corporation makes life certificates mandatory for pensions

The Lokayukta has opened an investigation into alleged irregularities. Explaining the issue, a senior municipal official said the municipal body has a provision of issuing pension assistance . Due to shortage of funds, the civic body was unable to disburse these pensions since the past two years

The Lokayukta has opened an inquiry into the disbursal of pensions by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), under the discretionary quota of councillors, allegedly after instances of discrepancy were found in West and Najafgarh zones, municipal commissioner Gyanesh Bharti informed a standing committee meeting on Tuesday.

The SDMC commissioner also advised the municipal councillors to obtain life certificates -- to attest that the pension beneficiary is alive and well -- before adding new pensioners under the scheme. (Representative image)

The SDMC commissioner also advised the municipal councillors to obtain life certificates -- to attest that the pension beneficiary is alive and well -- before adding new pensioners under the scheme.

Explaining the issue, a senior municipal official said the municipal body has a provision of issuing pension assistance of ₹1,000 per month to 400 pensioners in each of the 104 municipal wards. “After adding the pensions allocated from the discretionary quotas of senior functionaries such as the mayor, a total of 45,000 pensions can be disbursed by the corporation,” the official said, asking not to be named.

Due to shortage of funds, the civic body was unable to disburse these pensions since the past two years, the official said. “The last pensions were issued in September 2019. Commissioner has ordered that life certificates must be obtained from all beneficiaries before releasing any new pension amount. These certificates will be vetted and attested by the respective municipal councillor,” the official further said.

Officials said life certificates will help weed out dead beneficiaries, especially those who died since 2020 from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Standing committee chairman, Col (retd) BK Oberoi said there are 16 types of pensions in Delhi and most of the categories have been transferred to the Delhi government. “Categories such as senior citizen pensions and disable persons pensions have been taken over by the Delhi government. We are currently allowed to issue pensions only to five categories of people -- widows, transgenders, divorcees, people are ill /bedridden and children whose parents have died,” he said.

Oberoi said he was not aware about the number of cases in which discrepancies were found. “This is an administrative matter. During the committee meeting, the commissioner informed us that in some cases, pension were found issued to persons who are not alive. These must be cases not more than two years old and a probe is being carried out,” he said.

Bharti said no pension will be released without the production of a life certificate for a beneficiary concerned and said a similar attestation is made once a year by retired government officials as well. He did not provide specific number of cases in which the Lokayukta is carrying out the inquiry.

In the past, several pension related irregularities have been found in the north corporation as well as the erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). In 2010, the MCD had deleted the names of 3,583 beneficiaries from its pension scheme after finding out that they were availing of benefits from both the civic body and the Delhi government.