Bhubaneswar: In a bid to provide pension benefits in uninterrupted manner to beneficiaries under welfare schemes like National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) and Madhu Babu Pension Yojana (MBPY), Odisha government instructed the collectors to complete Aadhaar seeding by March 15 this year.

In a notification dated January 1, Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Commissioner-cum-Secretary Bhaskar Sharma directed the district authorities to expedite process to ensure completion of Aadhaar linking of all beneficiaries under NSAP and MBPY for transparency.

However, pension under these two schemes will not disbursed without Aadhaar, the official made it clear in the notification.

Referring to a letter dated August 30, 2019, he said that the district authorities were asked to complete Aadhaar seeding of two pension schemes by October 2019.

Currently, Aadhaar seeding is about 91% in NSAP and 73% in MBPY in Odisha. The Aadhaar seeding needs to be enhanced to 100% immediately for ensuring complete transparency in respect of these two schemes, the notification stated.

As per the order, the beneficiaries whose Aadhaar verification/seeding is pending, will be asked to mandatorily bring a copy of their Aadhaar card on January 15 to receive their pension. Those who fail to bring the Aadhaar card on the above date will be offered another opportunity to submit the same on March 15. The process of capturing Aadhaar particulars of the beneficiaries will be completed by January 31. The Aadhaar linking in respect of all beneficiaries will be completed by March 15.

The beneficiaries NSAP and MBPY will be barred from receiving pension from April 1 this year if they fail to complete Aadhaar linking with these two schemes in three months.