BENGALURU : A spurt in the number of applicants seeking widow pension has spurred the government into action: It has commenced a verification drive to ascertain genuine claimants and root out fake ones.The number of applicants has shot up by 75,000 in the past one year. The state had 16.3 lakh beneficiaries till September 2017, which increased to 17.1 lakh this September. The pension amount is Rs 600 per month.A senior revenue department official told TOI: “The verification process has just begun. We should have started it by October but had to defer it because of the recently concluded bypolls. We will conduct door-to-door visits and randomly check applicants’ credentials. The exercise will help us identify discrepancies in delivering government schemes to the targeted beneficiaries.” The official said applicants have been instructed to furnish original documents such as ration card/electoral photo identity card or Aadhaar card during verification. The main focus is on collecting Aadhaar numbers and encouraging beneficiaries to open bank accounts.On the rise in the number of claims, officials said there could be multiple factors at play. “May be the scheme was skewed in favour of some regions, and now more people are applying because of increased awareness and political intervention at the local level,” the official said.While, on an average, the number of beneficiaries in a district has increased by 2,500, Belagavi tops the list with 1.2 lakh women and has added 7,752 widows to the list in the past one year. Tumakuru is in the second place in terms of having new beneficiaries, with an addition of 5,796 widows. However, Shivamogga and Raichur have seen a decline in the number of claimants this year.BH Veeresh, social activist and trustee of RTI Study Centre, said: “Officials may attribute the decline in two districts to their efforts to weed out bogus beneficiaries. In that case, deletions should have been there in the other districts as well. Why is it limited to only two districts?”Another official said the increase in applications could be because local politicians were currying favour with voters in the run-up to the assembly elections.Officials suspect the number of applications may have gone up significantly for the other four social security schemes as well — old age pension, pension for the disabled, financial assistance for the elderly and farmer widow pension (FWP). “But we’ll get clarity only after the verification drive,” the official said. Software upgradation by the revenue department following transition from Khajane 1 (software to disburse funds) to Khajane 2 is also expected to streamline the system. We are in the process of migrating from K-1 to K-2 and it’s expected to be completed in a month or so,” said BT Ratnakumari, assistant director of the treasury department.The government has increased old age pension from Rs 600 to Rs 1,000 and beneficiaries will get the enhanced amount from November.Rise in farmers’ widowsThe farmer widow pension scheme, under which the wives of farmers who have committed suicide get a monthly pension of Rs 2,000, has thrown up more revelations. While the state has seen a 69% jump in the number of such women, Hassan and Mandya, two districts where the JD(S) enjoys political hegemony, have reported a higher increase than the state average. The number of farmer widows has doubled in Hassan, while Mandya has recorded a 80% jump. Bengaluru Urban district has only one beneficiary of this scheme since last year. Udupi has added only one new beneficiary, taking the total number to 9.

Stay updated with all the Bangalore Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.