Crime / ₹162 cr pension scam in Punjab, 70K people in 20 districts involved

CHANDIGARH: An old-age pension scam to the tune of Rs 162.35 crore has been unearthed in Punjab.

The Social Security and Development of Women and Children department has discovered that men and women in the age group of 30-40 years were shown as 65-plus and the pension withdrawn in their names. 

A total of 70,137 such ‘fake’ pensioners have been identified in 20 districts.

All the deputy commissioners have been directed to recover the money from such beneficiaries. Action will be taken against the officers who fail to do so.

The racket was traced to 2015 and influential people people, including politicians, have been found to be hand-in-glove with revenue officials to make fraudulent income certificates.

The fake beneficiaries also gave wrong addresses, allegedly in connivance with officials of Social Security and Development of Women and Children Department.

Many of the fake beneficiaries kept withdrawing the pension fraudulently for almost two years. 

“A hefty pension bill was putting a strain on the exchequer, So, when the Congress government came into power in 2017, it ordered a review of the old-age pension,” said an official.

SAD spokesman and former minister Daljit Singh Cheema, however, said it was shocking that the government had struck off 70,000 aged persons from the pension list.

The government had done so because it did not want to increase the outlay under scheme after raising the pension amount by Rs 200 per month, he alleged.