Kurnool: Pension offices of both Central and state governments are flooded with pensioners with life certificates to enrol once again in the registers so that their pension would be credited without any hassle. This yearly ritual has become a problem for aged pensioners as some of them have their pension accounts in remote district offices. It is mandatory for retired personnel of Central and state governments and public sector enterprises to submit life certificates every November to the authorised agencies for continuation of pension.
The Centre launched ‘Jeevan Pramaan’, a biometric-enabled digital service for pensioners, in 2014. Andhra Pradesh has switched over to digital life certificates from this year. There are 3.5 lakh State government pensioners in AP. In order to overcome this problem of yearly renewal, the Central government has come out with Jeevan Pramaan Patra, a digital version of life certificate for pensioners to validate at the year-end without physical presence in the pension offices.
A. Dharma Reddy, a retired civil engineer, said that the Aadhaar-based digital life certificate for pensioners is definitely a boon to retired professionals. “The problem we are facing is with the Aadhaar authentication. I took my Aadhaar number in 2011, but because of old age, the thumb markers are changing. With this, the digital readers are rejecting their applications for Jeevan Pramaan Patra registration,” Mr Reddy said. Since November 30 is the last date for life certificates, Aadhaar centres are witnessing rush and the pensioners are not getting a chance to correct their identities, he added.
