Lucknow: In a decision that would facilitate lakhs of senior citizens, the UP government has allowed them the option of holding their pension account in private banks as well.
Principal
secretary, finance,
Rahul Bhatnagar, told
TOI
that a long-pending demand of senior citizens had been fulfilled with this decision taken on Tuesday. "It is the first time this facility has been extended to government pensioners,"
Bhatnagar
added.
There are estimatedly 7.5 lakh pensioners of whom 5 lakh are employees of the state government, including 2 lakh teachers and 50,000 of the all-India services, who could so far hold pension accounts only in nationalised banks, as per Schedule I of
Reserve Bank of India. Because of excess burden on nationalised banks, pensioners had to face hardship withdrawing their monthly pension. They had mounted pressure on the state government to let them avail of private banks' services.
Amidst cut-throat competition in the banking sector in the country post economic reforms, private banks are not only offering better customer care services, they are also providing many lucrative schemes to account holders that could also give an added advantage to the elderly in opening pension account with them.
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