Social security pension now quicker with auto-approval mechanism

Rajasthan has implemented the auto-approval mechanism for applications for paying social security pensions.

It has benefited hundreds of applicants so far. There are more than 9.37 million beneficiaries getting various social security pensions. And, 9,59,938 new beneficiaries were added from October 2, 2021, to date. Earlier, the beneficiaries had to wait for 45 days for approval of their applications. Verification of all the required documents and data was done in 30 days and the applications were approved in the next 15 days.

In this new auto-approved mechanism, the beneficiaries receive the pension payment order (PPO) immediately after linking their Janaadhar card with the scheme.

As all the required information of the applicants is already available on their Janaadhar accounts, the government has done away with repeated verification of their documents. The role of government staff, who used to verify the beneficiaries, is over now.

To control corruption, human intervention was planned to be reduced. So, the state government decided to replace the physical and document verification with Meta data based online verification. It was followed by auto approval without human intervention. This was for improving accessibility, ensuring transparency and prompt faceless delivery of public service. The main objective was to switch over to a system of online database verification, instant auto approval and digital payments. It was also to ensure transparency, accountability and to leave no scope for discretion or corruption.

Due to complex processes, cumbersome documentation, consequent corruption, procedural delays and other reasons, the intended benefit of social security schemes did not reach the eligible beneficiaries.

The e-transformation from physical governance to digital governance has led to a paradigm shift and impacted quality service delivery.

Now, the beneficiary need not frequently visit various government offices for application and follow up. Instead, he can access the new pension portal or take help from any of the over 80,000 e-Mitra centres.