Central pensioners’ applications for digital life certificates surge

Aadhaar-based digital life certificates for pensioners have gained traction this year as 33 lakh pensioners of the Government of India have already submitted these since November 1.

It is mandatory for retired personnel of Central /State governments and public sector enterprises to submit life certificates every November to the authorised agencies for continuation of pension.

The Centre launched Jeevan Pramaan, a biometric-enabled digital service for pensioners, in 2014.

Government data show that 33.14 lakh pensioners had submitted digital life certificates in the last 20 days taking the total number of digital life certificate submission to 1.27 crore since 2014.

There are one crore families in the country which fall under the pensioner families category, where the pension disbursed by the various government bodies forms the basis of their income and sustainability.

There are about 50 lakh pensioners of the Central government and a similar number in State governments, Union Territories and various other government agencies.

This includes pensioners from the various public sector enterprises. Besides, there are 25 lakh Defence personnel who draw pension. Apart from the Centre, State governments too are coming forward now. Andhra Pradesh, for example, has switched over to digital life certificates from this year.

“We have made all preparations for submission of digital life certificates across the State. The response has been good,” Mohan Rao, Director of Treasuries & Accounts, AP, told BusinessLine . According Radha Rani, in-charge of a centre set up by the AP Pay & Accounts Office at the old secretariat office here, the response has been “good”.

“We have circulated our phone numbers and are responding to enquiries of pensioners in this regard,” she said.

However, there are some grey areas. In a centre visited by BusinessLine , about a dozen senior citizens were seen leaving as the Aadhaar-completion process could not be verified due to blurring of fingerprints.

The operational staff have not been advised on the alternatives that can be provided to the seniors.

“This is a big setback to us as we cannot come frequently and we are also worried about the continuity of our pension,” K Sita Mahalakshmi said after trying in vain to authenticate her fingerprints.

According to Mohan Rao, capturing fingerprints of senior citizens has been a problem and efforts are on to provide iris authentication facility to them soon. There are 3.5 lakh State government pensioners in AP.

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