Daijiworld Media Network - (MS)

Mangaluru, Nov 25: To prevent the fraud in pension collection, provident fund office has come up with the new procedure of obtaining fingerprint while renewing the pension for the coming year. Till now, 'Proof of life' certificate given by the provident fund office was sufficient to renew the pension every year.
Though this is a transparent system, if the fingerprint does not match, then the senior citizens will have to wander from office to bank.

The process of fingerprint

Pensioners have to visit the bank with passbook and Aadhar card. The manager of the bank will open the respective bank account after entering the Aadhar card number. Then OTP (One Time Password) number will be entered and the concerned pensioner has to place his/her thumb on the biometric fingerprint reader. If the fingerprint matches, then the account details of the concerned person will appear on the computer screen. If the fingerprint does not match, then the person has to visit the provident fund office and collect the 'Proof of life' certificate and visit the bank again.

No need to panic

"There is time until the end of December to link the pension account through biometric fingerprint. This can be done by visiting the bank or CSC (Common Service Centres). There is no need to panic if the fingerprint does not match. There is provision to renew the same at provident fund office after January," said Dayanand Suvarna, public relations officer of provident fund office.

New procedure to prevent double pension fraud

"Some pensioners, who have worked for two different organizations, open two bank accounts and apply for two pensions. In addition, there were instances wherein, the pension amount of the deceased pensioner was drawn by some other person using his fake signature. To prevent these frauds, the provident fund department has come up with this stern action from this year." said Dayanand Suvarna.