PANJIM: Almost five years after Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) criticising the State government for wasteful expenditure, Department of Social Welfare now plans to carry out an impact assessment survey to weed out bogus Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSSS) beneficiaries.
Speaking to O Heraldo, Director of Social Welfare Ajit Panchwadkar said, “The impact assessment survey was done five years ago and now it is time to do it again. We will weed out those beneficiaries whose income has gone up. May be earlier, they were eligible for the benefits but now their financial condition has improved.”
Commenting on a recent media report that the State government has discovered that wealthy businessmen from the tourism sector, whose monthly income is more than Rs 5 lakh, are beneficiaries of the scheme, the official did not rule out the possibility but said that the department has not received any complaint in this regard.
“We have not received complaints as such. However, we cannot rule out. We cannot say that they are bogus beneficiaries. What happens is that today the financial condition of a beneficiary is weak but if he or she makes efforts, it improves. Checks and balances have to be there. We will devise a mechanism through which accounts will be reconciled,” Panchwadkar said.
The official said that the government has decided to adopt the method of Aadhar based payment system of financial assistance to the beneficiaries.
“Now, saving accounts linked with an Aadhar Card number will only be accepted along with fresh application forms by the directorate. All the beneficiaries have been asked to link their bank accounts to their Aadhar card number within a period of three months starting from November 1, 2023. If the beneficiaries fail to link their Aadhar then financial assistance will be suspended till the Aadhar number is linked to the bank account,” he said.
“There are 1,39,002 beneficiaries of DSSS in the State. It’ a huge number. We will have to chase those who have taken the benefits even when he was not eligible. We are sending notices. Some amount has been recovered and some are yet to be recovered. Notices are being sent almost on a daily basis. Whenever we find such ineligible cases we stop the payment, track the payment history and send notices to the beneficiary for recovery of payment already made,” he said.
According to the official, out of 1,39,002 beneficiaries, 86,304 are senior citizens, 2,655 single women, 31,802 widows, 11,784 persons with disabilities, 418 HIV patients and 39 Bachpan.
All these beneficiaries are paid doles in a range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,500 per month.
In 2018, the CAG had criticised the State government for incurring wasteful expenditure.
It had pointed out that crores of taxpayers' money was given to ‘ineligible and bogus beneficiaries, under the DSSS.