Pensioners facing problems in Manipur

Imphal, Oct 16 (UNI) Even as the Manipur government was trying to grapple with fraud pensioners, the real claimants are finding it difficult to withdraw their money.

The pensioners stated that the policy of the state government made the aged people wait for hours at the bank to draw money.

A pensioner said hundreds of them come to the bank and a cashier announces the names of the beneficiaries who have to come forward and collect the token to withdraw money.

The system was lengthy and people had to come almost ten times to the bank, the pensioner said.

However, official sources said the Manipur government had been trying to detect fraud pensioners and the Finance department had taken several methods to check fraudulent withdrawal of pension.

Finance Commissioner R Rashmi said all the pensioners were asked to come to the Treasury office for photography and identification.

Treasury officials said all those who came were photographed and their finger prints taken digitally through computers and a complete data was maintained to check fraudulent withdrawal of pensions.

Finance officials said it was hard to detect fraudulent withdrawal as family members could continue to withdraw money even after the pensioner had died.

So far about 19,000 out of 25,000 pensioners came forward for photography and those who did not come will not be entertained, officials said.

The government has also ordered a probe into cases where the pensioners did not come for photography.

The pensioners urged the government to distribute pension on time. The distribution system was faulty and the government keeps changing the rules the pensioners said.

UNI