MARGAO: Thousands of senior citizens in the Salcete taluka are upset over not having received the Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSSS) pension money for the last four months.
Speaking to this daily, a couple of senior citizens said that only selective senior citizens are deprived of the pension.
“We gathered that only selective senior citizens did not get the pension. Upon inquiry at the Social Welfare department, South Goa, we were told that there was a technical problem, which was yet to be resolved. We wonder why there is a problem pertaining to selective people, and how others are regularly given the pension,” said a senior citizen, who had come to the office of the Social Welfare department at the South Goa Collectorate building on Wednesday to know the status of his pension.
Sources informed that nearly 64,000 senior citizens in South Goa, and nearly 30,000 senior citizens in Salcete have not received the DSSS pension for the last four months due to some ‘technical problem’.
Sources further informed that the government has already transferred the money to the respective senior citizen’s bank account, but as some banks have not updated their software with the new version, the transferred money could not be accepted by them.
“These banks have not updated their software with the new version as per the directives of the Supreme Court. The apex court has directed that all the government money has to be transferred through this software,” said an official maintaining anonymity.
Many senior citizens are depending on the DSSS pension provided by the government for their survival.
