Bengaluru, Aug 19 — The Karnataka Revenue Department on Wednesday issued an order to continue pensions for eligible beneficiaries under the Social Security Pension Scheme whose annual income, after verification, falls between Rs 32,000 and Rs 1,20,000.
Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue Minister G. Parameshwara, while providing details on the decision, said that various social security pensions, including old‑age pension, widow pension and disability pension, had an annual income limit of Rs 32,000. As this income ceiling had remained unchanged for a long time, lakhs of people were left out of the pension benefits. By increasing the annual income limit to Rs 1.20 lakh, a long‑pending issue has been resolved, he announced.
The statement said that when information from the Family Database was integrated with the state's pension-beneficiary data, 23,14,544 beneficiaries were identified as doubtful cases. The “Sanyojane” mobile app was developed to conduct physical verification of these beneficiaries.
During this process, the pensions of 18,06,032 beneficiaries were temporarily suspended because they either failed to produce the required documents, did not reside at the address provided, or had not submitted income verification certificates.
After Village Administrative Officers verified beneficiaries through the “Sanyojane” mobile app, the concerned Taluk Tahsildars were directed to verify them as per rules and provide pensions to eligible beneficiaries. However, during the physical verification of 23,14,544 doubtful beneficiaries, officials found that their annual income exceeded Rs 32,000, the statement said.
Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara directed that pensions be continued for beneficiaries among the 23,14,544 persons whose annual income is above Rs 32,000 and below Rs 1.20 lakh.
Accordingly, the Revenue Department has issued an order to continue pensions for eligible beneficiaries among the 23,14,544 cases who, after verification, have an annual income of more than Rs 32,000 and up to Rs 1.20 lakh.