Pilot Project of Distribution of pensions through biometric method in Suryapet.

Background:
During 2010-11, Government was planning to disburse the pensions through biometric method in Urban areas. Government have choosen the Nizamabad as pilot district. At the same time, there were many problems in distribution of pensions. More than 10 staff were suspended in the misappropriation related to it.Several such incidents took place in various ULBs.After knowing the matter of pilot project, i requested the then Collector, Nalgonda district Sri.Syed Ali Murtaza Rizvi to request the state officials to start a pilot project in Nalgonda district. He being an active person immediately made a call to state administration and  got the sanction.

Also, the distribution of pension through the Banks was a herculean task.Additional staff has to be deployed and controlling the very old people , who can say and who cannot listen the answer, is very difficult task.

Activity:
Cosequently, the process for the issuing of the Biometric Cards for distribution of pension has been initiated. Initially, the finger prints and photographs has to be captured.

First, meeting of all the staff involved was convened. Sri.Gaus, staff of suryapet municipality was kept in charge of the programme.
Subsequently, met the chief of the postal department. He convened the meeting of his department at his level.It is pertinent to mention that they are well versed with the Biometric method during their distribution of amount to the labour of  MGNREGS.

The schedule of capturing the finger prints and Iris has been issued by the DRDA.Accordingly, wide publicity was given to the schedule. All the ex – councillors were involved.Media was informed about the SCHEDULE . MEPMA staff also informed about the schedule to all the SHGs, through which it percolates to all the poor people.

Care has been taken not to cause any difficulty to the poor people.Tents were erected ,so as to provide shade to the attending old people.Some chairs were also arranged to the wait to their turn.vacant rooms in the office were opened and counters were opened in it to capture photographs and Iris.

After completion of the finger prints and Iris capturing, the distribution of pension is started through the post offices. Due to the presence of more number of post offices in suryapet, it made the things simpler than Banks.It is also a best method than distributing through the NGOs.

Difficulties faced:
1.political opposition for the initiative.
2 . Inadequate cameras and systems for capturing the finger prints and Iris.
3.Finger prints of the very old people were not captured and caused problem.
4.problem with the households having double pension.
5.Initial trouble of disbursement through post offices.
6. There was problem in capturing the details of the bedridden people.

Solutions:
1. political leaders apposed the Biometric initiative. They told that this initiative is not taking place in the rest of the municipalities in the Nalgonda district. This will blame them in the old aged people.

It is convinced that Suryapet Municipality is a famous municipality in the country. After a programme is launched in suryapet, other people would emulate it.Later, i told them that it is going to be implemented in total state and shown the schedule of other municipalities.

I also explained them that Banks are unable to cater the needs of the oldaged people and every month we are facing the trouble. There are more number of post offices in suryapet to cater the needs of people.

2. There were inadequate number of systems were sent by the DRDA to capture the photos, information, finger prints and Iris photo.Iphoto.In the intial days, operators were inadquate and not accustomed to the data feeding.

Municipal Commissioner Sri.B.Srinivas (myself) had made call to the APO pensions and requested for more numbers of operators with systems.He
.He responded and dispatched the same.
3. Clarification is seeked from the State administration through the District  Collector  to take the decision on the old whose finger prints are not captured. They allowed a second from their own families. Such list is called online. The same was sent and people were happy to receive their pension.
4. Government had also issued instructions to receive the  finger prints and Iris of bed ridden people  by approching to their houses.

5. In the initial stages of disbursement through post offices, there were many problems of not capturing of finger prints and finding the names, maintaining of queues, etc. The UPA staff was deployed to sort out the problems.

Thus, Suryapet has become a pioneering municipal body in the whole earstwhile A.P.state in biometric method of pension distribution.  Later, the system was observed by the world Bank team at Nalgonda. I was chosen to explain the systems and methods.