Panaji: Over 12,000 bogus or non-existent beneficiaries of the Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSSS) of the social welfare department have been identified and removed, while process to recover the money is on, according to government data, with the first phase of DSSS survey complete.
A total of 10,000 beneficiaries were removed due to discrepancies discovered during the survey, while another 2,101 were removed after data was analysed by the Data Analytics Cell.
“The removal of non-existent beneficiaries is complete; we have already identified 10,000 such beneficiaries,” said a top official in the Directorate of Social Welfare.
Minister for Social Welfare Subhash Phal Dessai said, “Since our upper limit is 1.40 lakh beneficiaries, this exercise ensures that only genuinely deserving persons can now take benefit.”
Stating that the ongoing clean-up process has resulted in financial savings, the minister said the department is also working on recovering money from the ineligible and deceased beneficiaries, which, he said, is currently held in various bank accounts. Phal Dessai said the process has been initiated with letters sent to banks for action. “We recovered Rs 13 crore last year; fresh figures are still not available, as it is an ongoing process,” he said.
Phal Dessai said the department’s goal is not to deprive anyone of the scheme. He said the ineligible and non-existent beneficiaries have been removed so that new and deserving individuals could benefit from the scheme. “This will save crores of rupees. Some of the beneficiaries were found to have expired, while others had left their villages. Some have even left the state,” he said.
Stating that the government transfers money into the bank accounts of beneficiaries at the end of every month, Phal Dessai said sometimes a backlog is created.
He said the government clears it as soon as possible.
It may be noted that the DSSS survey had begun in November last year with the help of Goa Electronics Limited. Data analytics were used to cross-check department data with other governmental records to identify the bogus or non-eligible beneficiaries.
Second phase of the survey began on March 1 and it focusses on senior citizens aged between 75 and 79.
