A major irregularity has come to light in Himachal Pradesh’s social security pension schemes, where 42,867 beneficiaries were found to be either deceased or ineligible despite receiving pension benefits for years. Of these, 37,335 beneficiaries were found to be dead, while 5,532 were declared ineligible under the scheme norms. Following the revelation, Secretary (Finance, Planning, Economics and Statistics) Dr Abhishek Jain has expressed serious concern and directed strict action against officials and employees found responsible for the lapse.
The issue surfaced during a recent high-level review meeting at the state secretariat, where officials informed that e-KYC of social security pension beneficiaries was conducted through a dedicated application. When this data was cross-verified, thousands of names were flagged as dead or ineligible. The Director (IT) informed the meeting that since 2016, a total of 4,52,779 death records have been received through the Civil Registration System portal. Out of these, 1,35,473 records were found to be Aadhaar-seeded.
The Finance Secretary directed that all Aadhaar-seeded death records be immediately matched with the e-KYC-based pension database and that the process of removing deceased beneficiaries from pension schemes should not face any delay. During the meeting, it was also revealed that after verification of CRS data, 2,378 beneficiaries have already been removed from social security pension schemes. The Rural Development and Health Departments have sought additional details and are still in the process of verification.
Officials were clearly told that the matter would not be treated as a mere data correction exercise. Responsibility would be fixed from field-level staff to senior officers whose negligence allowed deceased and ineligible individuals to continue receiving pension benefits for years. Dr Jain emphasized that welfare scheme funds must reach only genuine and eligible beneficiaries.
He further stated that the state government would tighten e-KYC and CRS-based verification mechanisms to ensure such irregularities are not repeated in the future. The objective, he said, is to restore transparency and accountability in welfare schemes and to safeguard public funds meant for the most vulnerable sections of society.
