AP Government to Disburse Pensions in Village and Ward Secretariat Offices
Vijayawada: The AP Government has decided to distribute social security pensions in the offices of Village and Ward Secretariats in view of the ban on Volunteers by the Election Commission of India.
The officials said that instead of door-to-door distribution of pensions, orders were issued to distribute these in the Secretariats.
Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (Department of Rural Development) Chief Executive Officer, D. Muralidhar Reddy issued orders through a circular on Sunday. The orders said that complaints were filed by the Citizens for Democracy and subsequently, there were orders of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, a continuous flow of complaints against volunteers, allegations in newspaper reports against volunteers influencing elections at the grassroots level.
In the spirit of the AP High Court order, the Election Commission has directed that Volunteers shall be barred from distribution of cash benefits under any scheme (including pensions) to eligible beneficiaries.
Further EC instructed return of the handheld devices (mobile/tablets/any other) with the DEOS till the Model Code of Conduct period.
The EC asked the AP government to make alternative arrangements for the distribution of benefits of ongoing schemes to already selected beneficiaries, using DBT(electronic transfer) preferably or through other regular government employees.
Muralidhar Reddy stated that keeping in view the EC instructions, it is decided to disburse the pensions through all Village/Ward Secretariat Staff during elections. The guidelines for disbursement of pensions during elections are issued, under which Pension disbursement through Volunteers has been disabled.
The Pension disbursement will be done at the Village/Ward Secretariat office only by all the Village/Ward Secretariat staff. The MPDOs/Municipal Commissioners will issue an Authorization letter to the Panchayat Secretary and Welfare & Education Assistant in rural areas and Ward Administrative Secretaries and Ward Welfare Development Secretaries in urban areas for carrying cash from banks to their Village/Ward Secretariats.
The Authorization letters with details of the secretariat and amount are available in MPDO/MC login and the Copy of Authorization letters should be sent to the concerned Returning Officers.
The Panchayat Secretary and Welfare & Education Assistant in rural areas and Ward Administrative Secretaries and Ward Welfare Development Secretaries in urban areas will withdraw cash from the bank and hand it to all the Village/Ward Secretariat staff.
The Logins will be provided to all Village/Ward Secretariat staff, they are directed to download the pension disbursement app in their mobile. The total secretariat pension list will be enabled to all the secretariat staff.
The Secretariat staff will disburse the pension amount duly obtaining Aadhaar Authentication( Biometric/Iris/ Aadhaar Face). In case of failure of Aadhaar Authentication, Real-time Beneficiary Identification System (RBIS) mode pension will be disbursed.
No publicity shall be given while disbursement of pensions and Pension disbursement photos/videos shall be avoided. While doing the disbursement of pensions, the Model Code of Conduct shall be adhered to and any deviation will be viewed seriously.
