Team Herald
PANJIM: As many as 64,000 beneficiaries of Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSSS) in the State have been left without their monthly pension, thanks to the lack of awareness by Goa government on the new Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) system on submitting account details. The Social Welfare Department (SWD) has assured to sort the problem out by May-end.
Sans payment for two months, several pensioners argue they were not informed about the development. Conceding the hardships faced by the beneficiaries, the social department stated the updated account details need to be submitted to the concerned banks, as it releases the payment deposited by the government.
As per the recently introduced RBI guidelines, the account numbers need to have a maximum length of 15 digits and that records with no information on the account number field would be rejected.
“When I approached the bank on not receiving the payment, they informed the amount was not deposited. I then went to the local office of the social welfare department only to be told that I will have to submit fresh life certificate and 15-digit account number. This was not told to me earlier,” Pratima Faldesai from Khola village said.
Another beneficiary had a similar complaint alleging the authorities are least bothered towards the crisis they face. Suhas Gauns said since he being an elderly citizen, his son had to make several rounds of the offices and the bank to finally get a confirmation that the four-digit account number is now not acceptable.
The Social Welfare Department, however, denies the charge with Director Meena Goltekar stating that they were helpless when banks were denying accepting the payment.
“We had been depositing payments to all the beneficiaries on their original account numbers but the system would not accept. There is no delay from our side. The RBI recently issued fresh guidelines… Our office contact numbers are already made public for any clarification or grievance,” she said. The officer said they have been guiding people on what needs to be done.
In a bid for an early solution, the department had an emergency meeting with the banks on Thursday urging cooperation. “The beneficiaries now need to submit the entire account digits to the banks,” she explained.
