Kerala: Fewer data entry operators delay pension applications

Thiruvananthapuram: It took six months for  C. Raghunathan Nair, 73,  to be included as a beneficiary of old age pension after submitting his application in March. Six months, however, is a short time, according to corporation officials. “Raghunathan was actually lucky as his application was processed in a zonal office. In the main office, it would have taken longer,” they say. They were not laughing it off. They have known cases where the processing of pension applications took two years.

They say that there are just three data entry operators in the pension section and the number of beneficiaries is now over 57,500. “That is almost equal to the total population of two grama panchayats,” an official says. Five additional operators were employed on a contract basis, but on May 31, following objections in a local fund audit, their services had to be terminated. The corporation is now utilising the services of data entry operators at standing committee chairpersons’ offices as well as the ones in other sections. The number of beneficiaries is bound to increase in the coming months.

Welfare committee chairperson R. Geetha Gopal says, “in three or four months, more than 5,000 beneficiaries will be added to the list. We would need more operators then.” She says that apart from these reasons, the applications also get delayed as the official verifying it would not do it immediately.  The corporation is speeding up the process. “Applications, which completed verification till July 19, have been passed by the welfare committee and the council. By December, no application will be pending.  Moreover, every chairperson will be linked to a zonal office to monitor its functioning. There will be a proper system in place to monitor the time taken by a verification officer to process each application,” she says.