Officials claim that SAD sarpanches dole out favours to their favourites. Congress sarpanches too go out of the way to please those aligned with their party, even if some of them are under-age or have large land-holdings.

A sum of Rs 5 crore is earmarked every month for the old-age pension scheme covering 1,98,658 persons in the district. The detection of fake pensioners shows that the scheme is full of loopholes.The pension of 16,000 phoney beneficiaries has now been put on hold. But highly placed officials say despite the government being defrauded, not a single FIR has been registered.

Naresh Kumar, District Social Security Officer, said that recovery notices had been sent to these fake beneficiaries, adding that there was no provision under the law to book them for a criminal offence.

In rural areas, pensions are granted to beneficiaries only after the village sarpanch identifies and authenticates their credentials. This task is performed by municipal councillors in urban areas.

In Gurdaspur district, two affluent brothers of a former Congress sarpanch of Dala village were found drawing old-age pension in violation of norms. When the ‘offence’ was brought to the notice of the Deputy Commissioner, Dr Abhinav Trikha, he asked the SDM to hold an inquiry. The SDM found the brothers guilty and recommended action against them. But till date, except for sending recovery notices to the brothers, nothing concrete has been done.

"We are constantly under pressure from politicians to refrain from taking action against fake pensioners, who are also their loyal workers,” said an official in the Social Security Department.