Captain Amarinder Singh keeps poll pledge, ups pensions

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh on Friday set in motion the process of enhancing old age pensions, as promised in the Congress manifesto, while approving a series of new criteria to ensure that only genuine people get pensions and the state government’s financial assistance schemes.

He also directed the social security and the women and child development departments to survey existing beneficiaries, which could be clubbed with the ongoing review of Attal Dal scheme beneficiaries, to weed out ineligible candidates from the list.

During a department meeting here, Mr Singh directed introduction of new forms, with the new criteria, to be filled up by all pensioners, including existing ones, in order to streamline the process and free beneficiaries from the clutches of sarpanches and nambardars.

The existing pensioners, however, will continue to get benefit pending review of the list, it was decided at the meeting. An official spokesperson said Mr Singh also initiated the process of implementation of the Congress’s promise to enhance old age pension. The meeting decided to introduce a quarterly pension system to bring about greater transparency in the system.