CS Pauses Bids to Recovering Money From Ineligible Beneficiaries

Hyderabad: After an 80-year-old woman was served notices for recovering an amount that she paid, in spite of her ineligibility, under two different schemes, Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumar on Sunday issued orders against initiating any steps for serving notices or recovering amounts from beneficiaries of various welfare schemes.

In the order, the Chief Secretary said that it has come to the notice of the government that several instances have occurred, where beneficiaries who were ineligible have been included in the grant of benefits under various welfare schemes.

In an attempt to prevent ineligible persons from receiving benefits under the welfare scheme, the Chief Secretary said the government has undertaken widespread consultations to streamline the welfare schemes to ensure better and more efficient targeting of eligible beneficiaries.

“After such consultations, the government would issue guidelines aimed at ensuring better targeting of welfare scheme benefits and establishing procedures for the recovery in case undue benefits were received by clearly ineligible persons. Until such guidelines are issued, all departments of the Secretariat and district collectors are instructed not to initiate any steps for issuing notices or recovering amounts from beneficiaries who have been included in various welfare schemes of the government,” the Chief Secretary said in the order..

The officials served notices to Dasari Mallamma for getting a family pension of `24,073 per month since her daughter died while working as an ANM, even while drawing an old-age pension.