Cash crunch boost for digital life certificate

AURANGABAD: Even if demonetisation has received mixed reviews from people across the country, for some it has turned out to be rather fruitful. Jeevan Pramaan, a government initiative that enables pensioners to generate digital life certificate, witnessed 60% of their total registrations in November alone.
According to government officials, more organised efforts are being taken to register veterans for Jeevan Pramaan in wake of the sudden rush in nationalised banks and post-offices.
As per official data, around 25.63 lakh pensioners have availed the benefit of digital life certificate post November, which accounts for nearly 60% of the total registration.
“Anticipating that more number of veterans are likely to avail the benefit of digital life certificate, necessary arrangements have been beefed up to ensure smooth registration. While local treasury offices are getting equipped with desired facilities, efforts are being taken to rope in Citizen Facilitation Centre (CFC) for desired registration,” a concerned senior official said.
Besides treasury offices, necessary formalities can be also completed with the help of designated third-party centres by paying Rs 100 as fees.
Manoj Gaggad, district treasury officer for Nanded, said, “Devices for registering bio-metric samples of pensioners have been made available in adequate numbers.”
“Producing only digital life-certificate could become mandatory in near future even if it is optional now. The Jeevan Pramaan facility is gradually finding more number of takers post demonetisation for many reasons including rush in banks and concerted efforts towards digital society,” he said.
Imran Patel, one of the over 70 local identified third-party vendors for issuing Jeevan Pramaan, said that he has ordered devices for recording bio-metric samples of pensioners post demonetisation. “I have been a designated vendor for sometime, but did not have necessary equipments as there were only few takers. However, I have placed an order for necessary set up and hoping that it provides good income,” he said.
One of the major requisite for the pension community is to provide life certificates to the authorized pension disbursing agencies like banks and post offices, following which the money is credited to their account.
Earlier, an individual drawing pension was required to either be present before the pension disbursing agency or have the life certificate issued by authority where they have served earlier and have it delivered to the disbursing agency. The hardships associated with this whole exercise have been done away by the Jeevan Pramaan.