By R Lester Makang
UKHRUL, January 16: With the deadline set for opening of bank accounts for beneficiaries under the National Social Assistance Program (NSAP) drawing to an end on Wednesday, a large number of pensioners from Ukhrul district are likely to face deletion of their names from the beneficiaries` list for want of bank account.
As per the information culled from the district Social Welfare department, Ukhrul, till the end of 2013 there are 4,522 beneficiaries under NSAP in the district of which 4172 are IGNOAP pensioners, while that of IGNWPS and IGNDPS are 272 and 78 respectively.
Up to December 2013, however, the total number of beneficiaries who had not opened a bank account accounted for almost 39 per cent of the total number of beneficiaries under the scheme in the district. That is a total of 791 pensioners under IGNOAP were yet to open their bank accounts, while 78 and 16 pensioners under IGNWPS and IGNDPS did not have their bank accounts.
Subsequently, the department recently notified to all the beneficiaries who were without bank accounts to open the same within 15 January 2014. However, many beneficiaries have failed to turn up or comply with the order by the set deadline thereby risking deletion of their names from the list of beneficiaries, according to the department.
DSO, Ukhrul, JK Makabo has said that this is primarily due to negligence on the part of the beneficiaries who kept putting off opening a bank account till the last minute, while adding, “We have been announcing and publicizing on the matter since the year 2010.”
The exact number of beneficiaries who stand deleted for failing to open a bank account is still awaiting till the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, a separate source from UBI, Ukhrul branch has said that the process for opening bank accounts for those beneficiaries who have applied for the same is going on steadily.