Guidelines of Telangana Aasara Pension Scheme, The Government of Telangana its social safety net strategy, hereby, introduces the Aasara pensions Scheme with a view to ensure secure life with dignity for all the poor.

This scheme is meant to protect the most vulnerable sections of society in particular the old and infirm; people with HIV-AIDS, widows, incapacitated weavers and toddy tappers, who have lost their means of livelihood with growing age, in order to support their day to day minimum needs required to lead a life of dignity and social security.

Also Read: Go 17 Aasara Pension Scheme Implementation in Telangana

Requirements for the Aasara Pension Sanction

Each pensioner will have to submit the following documents for sanction of a pension:

1. The applicant should be eligible as per the guidelines given above in para II
2. Photograph
3. Aadhaar number – (If Aadhaar number is not available they shall secure one in the next three months)
4. Savings Bank account number and IFSC code either from a bank or local post office
5. Age certificate
6. Death certificate in case of widows. (Where death certificate is not available the Panchayat Secretary shall conduct a detailed enquiry and submit a report. However, the death certificate shall be obtained in the next three months and uploaded in the online system.
7. SADAREM Certificate in case of persons with disabilities 40% or above and 51% in respect of the hearing impaired

Eligible Pensioners Identification

Verification of the applications will be done by the Gram Panchayat or the respective municipal/Deputy Commissioner of the GHMC.

1. The Gram Panchayat Secretary / Village Revenue Officer in the rural area and Bill Collector in Urban area will receive applications;
2. The Gram Panchayat Secretary in rural areas and the Bill Collector in the Urban areas will be entrusted with the task of verifying these applications and certifying them;
3. The designated Mandal Parishad Development Officer / Municipal Commissioner/ Deputy/Zonal Commissioner Officer shall scrutinize the verified applications to assess their eligibility and sanction them a pension based on the guidelines given time to time by the Government.
4. While identifying beneficiaries as listed in para C above, the data as per the household survey, the census population figures & percentages for old age, widows and handicapped shall be kept in mind for each Panchayat, mandal, and municipality, besides ensuring equity among the various social categories such as SC, ST, BC and OC communities.
5. Wrongful identification and certification of beneficiaries if identified in the social audit or surprise verification of beneficiaries will be severely dealt with and disciplinary action initiated on all concerned besides recovery of the amount paid. These shall include wrongful certificates issued under SADAREM in respect of persons with disabilities.

Sanction of Aasara Pensions and Issue of Pension Card

[clear]
After verification reports have been submitted by the verification officers, the MPDOs in rural areas, Tahsildars (Hyderabad district) / Municipal Commissioners in urban areas and Dy. Commissioners in GHMC areas shall:

1. Broadly assess the recommendation reports and correlate the same with the SKS survey data (exclusion and inclusion criterion) and the census figures assessed and allocated for each mandal by the District Collector for old age, widows and handicapped persons for the mandal.
2. MPDO’s shall ensure that the poorest of the poor are identified from amongst the verified list covering all social categories such as the SC, ST, BC and OC communities and are strictly covered in that order. Adequate care should be taken that no eligible beneficiary is left out.
3. After satisfying the above criterion, the MPDO/ Municipal Commissioner/ Deputy Commissioner of the GHMC concerned shall enter the data in the Aasara software, specially designed for this purpose and submit the same online to the District Collector for according administrative sanction (all process will be completed online).
4. After final approval by the District Collector, MPDO’s shall ensure that Aasara Pension cards are distributed for the relevant category by affixing the photo of the beneficiary. Necessary arrangements shall be made to ensure that the details are printed on the card through the Aasara Software.
5. The GPs should necessarily maintain an A Register and a B Register, specifying the existing pensioners and those who are eligible but have not been considered for a pension. As and when there is a vacancy and a person can be accommodated, the person who is accommodated first should be considered based on the following criteria- oldest among those listed, SC/ST, landless with a preference to women, especially deserted women in all categories.

Aadhaar Seeding

All payment’s for pensions shall be disbursed only biometrically subject to the following:

• i. Where Aadhaar number is available for a beneficiary, they shall be immediately seeded for enabling biometric authentication based payment through the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS);
• ii. Where beneficiaries do not have an Aadhaar number they shall secure one with the help of the local administration and furnish the Aadhaar number by 31-01- 2015. From 1st February, 2015 payments can be effected only through biometric authentication;
• iii. The disbursement of pensions shall be made through biometric authentication using Aadhaar number. For this purpose, either the best finger detection (BFD) or IRIS authentication may be used to effect payments;
• iv. In rare cases such as those who are bedridden, or upper extremities are affected badly, the pensions shall be disbursed by Gram Panchayat secretary /Bill Collector using his own biometrics, however this shall be done only in rare cases and all such cases should be cleared by a competent higher authority;

Release of Amounts for disbursal of pensions

MPDO’s will have to forward the details of all beneficiaries selected, online to SERP for release of the amount to the Districts for disbursement as follows:

1. Centralized acquittances’ along with proceedings shall be generated in the software at the state level and placed in the web for seeking approval on the proceedings by the District Collector through the Project Director, DRDA;
2. The Project Director, DRDA shall take the approval of the District Collector on physical file and upload the file in the Aasara Software;
3. Fund Transfer Request shall be generated by SERP and the Fund Transfer Order generated automatically will transfer the funds electronically to the Disbursing Agencies from the SSP State Nodal Account operated by the Chief Executive Officer, SERP;
4. The MPDOs / Tahsildars (Hyderabad district) shall download the acquittances from the logins provided to them and take printouts to handover to the Disbursing Agencies;
5. The pensions shall be disbursed at GP / disbursing point level by the Customer Service Provider (CSP) in the areas covered by the disbursing agencies;
6. The signed acquittances shall be returned to the MPDO / Tahsildars (Hyderabad district) by the Disbursing Agencies;.
7. In cases where there is a change of pensioner status such as death of a pensioner, widow who is remarried and change in disability status, the same shall be reported by the Customer Service Provider (CSP)/ Branch Post Master (BPM)/Gram Panchayat Secretary (GPS) every month. The MPDO shall be responsible for deleting these names on an immediate basis;

Disbursal of Pensions

Each pensioner shall have a bank account into which the amount shall be remitted.

• i. In larger municipalities where ATM facilities are abundant, the pensions may be remitted in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries to enable them to draw using ATM cards;.
• ii. In rural areas where banks exist, the pension can be deposited in the local banks or the post offices and shall be disbursed through biometric authentication either using the best finger detection or the iris scan. For this purpose, each pensioner will have to be registered in the biometric device for disbursal through biometric authentication;
• iii. As far as possible, the disbursement of pensions should be done in a public place such as the school building or the Gram Panchayat Building;

Telangana Aasara Pension Disbursement Cycle

[clear]
The monthly disbursement cycle of Social Security pensions shall be followed as given below without fail, so that the poor receive the pension amount on a fixed day every month.

Activity	Schedule Date
Disbursement of pensions	1st to 7th of every month
Sharing of disbursement data through bio-metric / IRIS authentication to SSP server by the pension Disbursing Agencies	Direct hitting on real time basis
Return of the signed acquaintance’s by the pension Disbursing Agencies to the MPDO / Municipal Commissioners	9th
Remittance of the undisbursed amount from Pension Disbursing Agency (PDA) directly to State Nodal Account (SNA)	9th
Generation of acquittances for the subsequent month	16th to 21st
Approval of proceedings by District Collector	22nd / 23rd
Request for Fund Transfer by Project Director, DRDA on securing the approval of the District Collector Same day	(22nd / 23rd)
Approval of Fund Transfer Request (FTR) by the SERP after securing the approval of District Collector	23rd /24th
Funds for disbursement of pensions to be reached to the concerned PDAs from the SNA	25th

Acquittances are mandatory for disbursement

Each disbursement with cash or through biometric authentication shall be disbursed only on the relevant acquittances being maintained. In other words, the signature/ thumb impression of the beneficiary shall have to be taken against the name upon disbursal of the amount/ biometric authentication of the amount.The MPDO’s and Municipal/ Deputy Commissioner’s shall ensure that all acquittances duly signed / thumb impressions affixed by the concerned beneficiaries are checked and acknowledged. The aquittance records shall be maintained for audit/social audit and inspections.

Social Audit

100% social audit shall be done of the pensions disbursed by the Gram Panchayat Secretary/Bill Collector and independently in Urban/GHMC areas by SSAAT. Social audit of SSP shall be done in all villages along with MGNREGS in rural areas. Wrongful certification of ineligible beneficiaries shall be severely dealt with on all involved in the verification process besides recovery of the amount.

Administration of Pensions

The CEO, SERP, Telangana, Hyderabad and all the District Collectors shall take full responsibility to implement the Aasara Pensions Scheme online. Care shall be taken that strict protocol is maintained in effecting changes in the database or in the procedures except through the instructions issued by the Government. Necessary network security of the data shall be ensured. Only authorized change requests after approval of the competent authority shall be permitted. The Software provider shall only effect changes where there written change requests by the authorized officers only. Detailed MIS reports shall be put up on the pension website and made universally accessible to all. Administrative cost not exceeding 3% can be met towards the expenditure incurred such as service charges to disbursing agencies, conduct of social audit and maintenance of the software, hardware etc. for the implementation of the Aasara Pension scheme.

This order is issued with the concurrence of Finance Department vide their U.O.No.158/EBS-VIII/14, dt.1/11/2014.

For More Information and Details please visit: http://www.ssp.telangana.gov.in/