Udupi : R. Ashok, Revenue Minister laid the foundation stone for Mini-Vidhana Soudha, at Hebri on Sunday December 08.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone he said, old-age pension would soon be delivered to the doorsteps of beneficiaries.

An amount of ₹7,000 crore was spent on providing old-age pension, widow pension and other pensions in the State. However the presence of middlemen and ineligible beneficiaries were obstacles in real beneficiaries getting the benefit of the pensions. Hence, the government had decided to link Aadhaar to get these pensions. This would be stop the leakage of about ₹1,000 crore. Since the Aadhaar card had birth dates, the government would be able identity senior citizens and provide old age pension to them. They would not even have to apply. The pension amount would be mailed to their doorsteps.

A pilot project in this regard would be implemented in Udupi district. Already 3,000 beneficiaries had been identified for this and a meeting had been held with the Chief Secretary.

The government had decided that birth certificates would henceforth be provided from the tahsildar’s office. Udupi district presently had one sub-divison. However, after four more talks had been created in the district, the number of taluks had risen to seven, hence there was demand for another sub division.

There was also a demand to create a separate Hebri hobli out of the existing Ajekar hobli, and to create Bajagoli hobli from the existing Karkala hobli. These demands would be considered positively by the government, he said. The government would try its best to implement the K. Kasturirangan Report on Conservation of Western Ghats without disturbing human habitations. It would make provisions for making changes in the Aadhaar cards in gram panchayats. Steps would be taken to include more villages in the new Hebri taluk, Mr. Ashok said.

V. Sunil Kumar, Karkala MLA, Sudhakar, president of Hebri GP, Soubhagya Madivala, president of Karkala TP, and Jyoti Harish and Supreeta Kulal, ZP members, were present.