Punjab Waqf Board beneficiaries sans pension for 6 months
Sangrur, December 8
The attempts of the Punjab Waqf Board authorities to pay pension to its beneficiaries through online mode has affected hundreds as they have not received their payments since June.
The reason stated is that beneficiaries are not submitting their mandatory documents to the board authorities to receive the payment online.
“I have not received my pension since June. If a beneficiary is not in the favour of receiving its pension through online mode, the board should pay them in offline mode as they earlier used to,” said a 78-year-old woman beneficiary from Malerkotla.
Sources said there were around 4,500 pensioners across Punjab, the majority of which were from Malerkotla (around 3,700), followed by Khanna (264), Sangrur (152), Ropar (73) and other districts.
The decision to switch to online mode of payment was taken after the board passed a resolution to bring transparency in its working.
Repeated efforts of board officials have failed to get mandatory documents of all beneficiaries. The CEO of the board, Latif Ahmad, said, “Hundreds of pensioners are yet to submit the mandatory documents. We had passed the resolution to bring more transparency in the system. If need arises, we will organise a special camp to release pension in an offline mode once more.”
