Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government has turned its attention to the banking system after the names of nearly one lakh deceased beneficiaries were found in the state’s social security pension records. The Finance Department has now initiated an inquiry to determine how pension payments continued to be credited into the bank accounts of beneficiaries even after their deaths.
Finance Secretary Dr Abhishek Jain has sought a detailed report from the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), asking banks to provide information about accounts linked to deceased pensioners and the transactions carried out in those accounts after the beneficiaries’ deaths.
The inquiry will examine how long the bank accounts of deceased pensioners remained active and how pension amounts continued to be deposited into them. The government also wants to ascertain whether banks had mechanisms in place to identify deceased account holders and whether those mechanisms were activated promptly after receiving information about a customer’s death.
Bank-Wise Data Sought; Government Seeks to Identify System Gaps
The Finance Department has asked for bank-wise details of accounts belonging to deceased pension beneficiaries. Once the information is compiled, the government will be able to determine whether the problem was concentrated in particular banks or regions or was widespread across multiple banking institutions.
Officials will also examine the period for which pension payments continued after the death of each beneficiary. This will be important in determining the extent of the irregularity and the amount of public money that may have been transferred after beneficiaries ceased to be eligible.
The exercise will involve reconciliation of social security pension records with banking transaction data. This will help establish when payments were stopped, how many instalments were credited after death and what happened to the money subsequently deposited into the accounts.
The inquiry will also focus on the procedures followed by banks after receiving information about the death of an account holder.
Officials are expected to examine whether such accounts were identified within a reasonable period, whether they were deactivated or placed under appropriate restrictions and whether information was communicated to the concerned government department for stopping pension payments.
The government has prescribed procedures for discontinuing social security pensions once a beneficiary becomes ineligible. The Finance Department therefore wants to establish at which stage the system failed in these cases.
Possible Accountability if Lapses Found; Focus on Preventing Further Payments
The government is not treating the matter merely as an exercise to remove deceased persons from pension rolls. Given the large number of beneficiaries involved, authorities want to establish the financial implications of the payments made after their deaths.
If the investigation finds that the issue resulted from delays in updating records, communication gaps or technical problems, corrective measures could be introduced to strengthen the pension verification system.
However, if the probe establishes deliberate negligence, failure to follow prescribed procedures or serious lapses in monitoring, the government could examine fixing responsibility for the failures.
The latest move is aimed at plugging possible leakages in the social security pension system and ensuring that government funds reach only eligible beneficiaries.
The bank-level investigation is expected to provide the government with a clearer picture of the number of accounts involved, the duration for which payments continued and the total amount credited after the beneficiaries’ deaths.
