Come November and pensioners will face hurdles from the pension disbursing authority for getting a life certificate for transfer of pension amount for the next twelve months. This causes much hardship and inconvenience for the aged and infirm pensioners who have to present themselves before the particular authority to secure their life certificate. Jeevan Pramaan, digital life certificate, is a Digital India initiative which aims to streamline the process of getting life certificates and making it hassle free. It is a biometric enabled digital service where the pensioner has to record his/her fingerprint on scanner or the eye on the Iris scanner.
This can be done at various Jeevan Pramaan Centres which are being operated by CSCs, banks, and Government offices or by using the client application on any PC/mobile/tablet. Pensioner’s information like PPO, bank account etc are fed into the system though web based / client interface and finally these are authenticated using the 12 digit Aadhaar number only. Ironically, State-wise Aadhaar saturation is very minimal . But Aadhaar is now the identity of 1.3 billion population of India linked with lPG subsidy, bank account, registration of flats etc. Aadhaar is now linked to ATM, ration cards, MGNREGS database, passports, PAN card, Voter ID, etc. There is no other alternative available other than the UIDAI generated Aadhaar.
The only way out is for UIDAI is to authorise banks to process the Aadhaar applications for its customers. The State Government should draw up action plans to implement Aadhaar as early as possible for the interest of pensioners.
(K Ravi, E-237,GGP Colony, Bhubaneswar, 751025, M-9437616497)