Thiruvananthapuram: In a major revelation, an inspection by the Information Kerala Mission at the behest of the state Finance Department, has uncovered that 1,458 government employees in the state have been illegally receiving social security pensions.
According to the findings, fraud involved several gazetted officials, including college assistant professors and higher secondary teachers, who were found to be benefiting from welfare pensions. Among those caught in the scheme are two assistant professors, one working in a government college in Thiruvananthapuram district and the other in Palakkad district. Additionally, three higher secondary school teachers were identified as pension recipients.
The state Finance Minister, KN Balagopal, has directed authorities to recover the unlawfully received pension amounts, along with applicable interest, and take strict disciplinary action against the responsible individuals.
The investigation revealed that the health department had the highest number of fraudulent pension recipients, with 373 employees implicated.
Of the 1,458 employees on the list, 373 are from the health department, 224 from the general education department and 123 from the medical education department. The rest belong to departments of technical education, homoeopathy, revenue, agriculture, judiciary and social justice, and the collegiate education department.
The Kerala government gives a monthly welfare pension of Rs 1,600 for five categories of beneficiaries and the state government employees are not entitled to receive the pension.
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