BMW owners among social security pension beneficiaries, Kerala to probe

T'PURAM: Left-governed Kerala's social security benevolence allegedly extends to BMW owners and people living in airconditioned homes, many of whom are suspected of pocketing subsistence pensions based on fudged income certificates.

The LDF govt ordered a vigilance probe recently against officials of Kottakkal municipality in Malappuram after an audit by the district finance department revealed that 38 of 42 beneficiaries assessed in Ward 7 were ineligible for pension. One pensioner was long dead.

A previous inspection by Information Kerala Mission, which oversees computerisation and networking of local self-govt institutions, found that 1,458 govt employees had been fraudulently claiming social security pensions.

In most cases of alleged fraud, the first breach was found to have occurred during eligibility checks for schemes for the underprivileged.

Sources said one suggestion was to evaluate the progress of any such investigation monthly. Authorities havealready decided to repeat eligibility checks covering all social security beneficiaries in Kottakkal municipality.

State finance minister K N Balagopal instructed local self-govt institutions to carry out regular assessments of the eligibility of beneficiaries of social welfare pensions through bank accounts. He directed officials to ensure removal of ineligible names from lists of beneficiaries.

With around 60 lakh welfare pensioners, the govt allocates around Rs 900 crore every month to transfer Rs 1,600 each to eligible beneficiaries.