To ensure hassle-free distribution of pensions to the beneficiaries, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday instructed the social security department and the bankers to release the payments at the earliest.
It has been decided that the village Sarpanches will hand over cheques to the pension beneficiaries who in turn to be paid in cash by the banks so as to not let them encounter any difficulty on account of de-monetization drive.
Sukhbir, presiding over a meeting with social security department and top functionaries of the leading banks, instructed them to ensure timely disbursal of old age pension, widow pensions and pensions to differently-abled persons.
It has been decided that banks would issues cheque books to the Gram Panchayats and the Sarpanches would further hand over cheques to the beneficiaries who would be paid in cash by the banks.
Batting for the increase in withdrawal limit of Gram Panchayats for smooth functioning of development projects and pension distribution, Sukhbir asked RBI’s Chandigarh unit general manager Rachna Dixit to write to her higher authorities as well as the Finance Ministry in order to speed up the same.
He also said that he would take up the issue with the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in this regard to mitigate the problems being faced by the Sarpanches. Sukhbir also directed the general managers and zonal managers of various banks to distribute the cheque books to all the panchayats immediately in order to enable them to be benefitted from the banking services.
Instructing the bankers to pay specialized attention to opening accounts of those in rural belt still devoid of the facility, he said that this is absolutely necessary to ensure the success of the digitization and cashless economy drive begun by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.