Soon, pensioners in the six districts of Chitradurga, Bellary, Gulbarga, Dharwad, Chamarajnagar and Mandya, can flaunt biometric smartcards, with the revenue department set to launch its pilot project to streamline the disbursal of pension under its various social security schemes.

After the fake LPG connection and ration card drives, it is now the turn of the revenue department to chant the ‘streamlining’ mantra. The move comes after a statewide crackdown since March this year, which found that here were as many as 4.89 lakh ‘ineligible’ beneficiaries. Worse, the physical verification drive revealed shocking facts.

Sample this. An impersonator collects pension of a dead person as the local official fails to update life records while, a physically challenged person shuttles between two districts —Bellary and Chitradurga — to collect monthly pension twice but from two different addresses. Some government employees in Belgaum even fraudulently siphoned off pension amounts under fake names, said sources.

These are only a few of the tricks used to avail the monthly pension given under the eight social security schemes including old age pension (OAP), widow pension and physically handicapped pension. Said revenue secretary Ashok Kumar Manoli, “We have adopted a software which easily picks up any duplication of photographs or addresses of beneficiaries, uploaded to the centralized database. We will physically track down the fake beneficiaries and cancel their pension. The centralized database will be ready soon after the process of online registration of beneficiaries is through. After physical verification, they will be given biometric smartcards, which are tamper proof,” explained Mr Manoli.