Karnataka: Revenue dept identifies 23.19L ‘ineligible’ pensioners

'Currently, there are 21.87 lakh and 31.33 lakh beneficiaries under the Old Age Pension and Sandhya Suraksha Scheme, respectively. (Of this) 9.04 lakh beneficiaries under the old age pension scheme and 14.15 lakh beneficiaries of the Sandhya Suraksha Yojana have been found to be ineligible,' the commissioner of KSDMA and Social Security and Pension said in a notification dated June 6.

Bengaluru: The Revenue department has identified 23.19 lakh ‘ineligible’ pensioners who may lose the cash benefit they are currently receiving.

“Currently, there are 21.87 lakh and 31.33 lakh beneficiaries under the Old Age Pension and Sandhya Suraksha Scheme, respectively. (Of this) 9.04 lakh beneficiaries under the old age pension scheme and 14.15 lakh beneficiaries of the Sandhya Suraksha Yojana have been found to be ineligible,” the commissioner of Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) and Social Security and Pension said in a notification dated June 6.

Stating that the village-wise, taluk-wise and district-wise data of beneficiaries had been provided to the tahsildars, the notification asked tahsildars to take measures to cancel the pensions for these ‘ineligible’ beneficiaries by undertaking a physical assessment based on the criteria of under age, income limit, APL, IT payee and HRMS and provide the information to the department by June 11.

BJP slams move

Accusing the Congress of having led the state finances to bankruptcy, BJP leader and Karkala MLA V Sunil Kumar said the government was saving money from the pension amount of the poor.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), he said: “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who preached in the DCs’ meeting about the need to have concern for the poor, is now going on a rampage against the poor. The 60 per cent government has now eyed the pension amount being provided to the old and underprivileged under different schemes.”