the goan I network
PANAJI
The senior citizen pensioners are facing the brunt of standing in queues for hours in the State Bank of India branches to register for life certificates.
The rush for the process which started on November 1 is increasing by the day as the deadline (November 30) to submit the certificates is near.
The newly introduced process of Aadhaar-based Digital Life Certificate has become time-consuming as the pensioners have to register their biometric details using biometric scanners.
As each branch has only one counter to register such details queues are the order of the day. For an hour on average only 5-10 persons get their work done.
At a time around fifty pensioners wait in queue for two to three hours to finish the process. Some citizens after waiting in queue for two hours have to return if they forget to get any one of the documents or some of these have any fault. The worst part is the entire process has to be repeated again.
“If something happens to any of the senior citizen while waiting in a queue, who will be responsible?” asked a pensioner Roque D’Souza, who demanded a solution to the problem.
Deputy Manager of SBI, Mapusa branch, said that with the introduction of Aadhaar-based certificates, it takes time for the registration process.
There are around 2000 pensioners who have their pension accounts in the Mapusa branch.
All those who get pension have to submit a ‘life certificate’ attested by a gazetted officer by November 30 each year to continue receiving the amount. Those who fail to do face the prospect of having their pension withheld until the submission of the certificate.
The entire process involved had come under fire for being very time consuming and inconsiderate of the needs and health conditions of old and ailing pensioners who had to wait in
long queues to submit the life certificate.
Pensioners who have moved locations after retirement also face problems in submitting the life certificate.
The failure of Aadhaar-based authentication and the lack of a dedicated staff deployed by banks have intensified the ordeal for pensioners.
One only hopes that the government and all agencies involved will make a note of the issues and address them so that senior citizens complete the process without hassle.
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