Village first to get biometric smart cards

TIRUVANNAMALAI: For the first time in the state, the district administration has issued biometric smart cards to beneficiaries of social security schemes to ensure a paperless and transparent system, through which social security payments can be made. Of the total 1,70,500 beneficiaries of eight social security schemes, including the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, Indira Gandhi National Disabled Pension Scheme, Destitute and Deserted Wife Pension and Destitute Widow Pension in the district, the district administration, in association with 12 public and private sector banks, issued smart cards to 18,500 beneficiaries. These were distributed as part of the first phase of the Central government’s financial inclusion project. The banks would issue smart cards to a total of 54,247 persons in the first phase.“We have issued biometric smart cards to beneficiaries of the social security schemes and the new system will ensure a paperless and transparent disbursement of financial assistance to the beneficiaries. We are the first in the state to issue smart cards to beneficiaries of the government welfare schemes,” said Collector Anshul Mishra, who launched the scheme on April 9 at Narthampoondi village.The new system would enable the beneficiaries to withdraw money at their convenience. “The card has all the details of the beneficiary and the monetary assistance can be withdrawn by the respective beneficiaries. The new system will also help officials detect abnormal cash withdrawals, thereby ruling out the possibility of the card being misused,” added Mishra.Correspondents engaged by banks in the respective villages would make the payments to the beneficiaries at their doorstep. “The card contains all the details of the beneficiaries including finger prints. The bank correspondents will be handed the cash to be disbursed and they will carry a hand held machine (micro ATM) with them. After inserting the smart card in the machine and confirming the finger prints, the cardholders can withdraw, deposit and transfer money,” said Tiruvannamalai Selvam, manager of Indian Bank. Hitherto, beneficiaries had to wait for the postmen to withdraw the money and also paid them tips, said  beneficiaries in Narthampoondi. “Now, we have a person from the bank and can withdraw money as per our requirement. We were told that we can draw from `50 and also deposit money into our accounts,” said 66 year-old Saroja.