63.36 lakh people receive social security pension, says Rajasthan Minister

The Rajasthan government is providing social security pension to 63.36 lakh people, said the state's Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Arun Chaturvedi on Tuesday.

This comes after BJP MLA Bhawani Singh Rajawat cornered his own government in the state Assembly on poorly execution of social security pension. He claimed that poor beneficiaries entitled to get pension were denied the same.

Rajawat raised the issue during Question Hour on Tuesday morning. "Rajasthan's population has reached to 7 crore, though the figures produced in the House don't tally with its ratio. Many senior citizens are not getting pension at present," stated Rajawat.

Replying to this query, Chaturvedi claimed that all beneficiaries, be it senior citizen, widow, or physically challenged, are getting their pension on time. He said that the pension was being provided to 48.92 lakh old-aged, 4.14 lakh differently-abled and 10.29 lakh widows.

"We are disbursing pension to 63,36,789 beneficiaries at present. Earlier, reception of applications asking for pension was offline which we have upgraded to online. This has eliminated delay in pension disbursement," the minister told the House.

Chaturvedi also added, "No pension has been stopped due to physical verification," replied the minister adding that 99 per cent verification has been done by 2017.