more-in The list of ineligible welfare pensioners in the city Corporation will be subjected to intense vetting at the ground level as several eligible persons have been found to be included on the list. The list was prepared after a survey conducted by an agency appointed by the State government. At a council meeting on Wednesday, the issue led to heated debates, with councillors raising questions about the process followed in preparing the list. The welfare pensions of 2,479 beneficiaries in the Corporation area have remained blocked for the past few months after they were included on the list of ineligible beneficiaries. Out of this, 1,532 were included on the list of dead beneficiaries, while 947 were included on the list of car owners who are claiming pension. The Corporation has till now received 700 complaints. Seek action Councillors of the Opposition BJP demanded action against the officials involved in the survey. They questioned the birth and death wing for not properly scrutinising the list. As per the government order, pension cannot be drawn in the name of the dead or anyone owning a car above 1,000 cc engine capacity. The list was prepared by comparing data from the Motor Vehicles Department and from the death registers, with the list of beneficiaries. Welfare Standing Committee chairperson S.S. Sindhu said that such a process, without door-to-door surveys, had led to errors creeping in, and eligible beneficiaries getting wrongly included on the list. Admitting that there have been discrepancies in the survey, Mayor V.K. Prashant said that officials would carry out ground level surveys in all wards to ascertain the status of each person included on the ineligible list. Councillors would also be given the list of such beneficiaries in each ward. Once a particular beneficiary had been found to be wrongly included, steps would be taken to immediately release their welfare pension. Earlier, the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) walked out of the council meeting, after the Mayor refused to allow a discussion on the lack of progress in land acquisition for the Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) housing project. The council meeting also decided to request the State government to amend the Kerala Municipal Building Rules to ease the restrictions imposed on construction in the vicinity of military stations. Hundreds of people who owned land in the vicinity of the Pangode Military camp have been facing difficulty over the past few years owing to restrictions imposed on construction within 100 metres of the camp boundary. The council requested to reduce this limit to 10 metres.

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