As part of the country-wide Atal Pension Yojana (APY) Outreach Programs, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Wednesday conducted one such programme at J&K Bank Corporate Headquarters in collaboration with J&K Bank (Convenor J&K UTLBC). The event witnessed an active participation of all the member banks operating in the UT of J&K besides serving as a platform for the enrolment of scores of beneficiaries under Atal Pension Yojana Scheme.
General Manager, J&K Bank (Convenor J&K UTLBC) Syed Rais Maqbool chaired the event wherein Deputy General Manager (PFRDA) Priyanka Gupta was the special-guest. The program was attended by Mission Director (PMJDY) M. Y. Itoo, Additional Mission Director (JK RLM) Riyaz Ahmad Beigh, senior officials of RBI, NABARD, regional heads of various banks operating in J&K UT, Lead District Managers, Business Correspondents (BCs) besides achievers and beneficiaries under the scheme.
Dwelling upon the purpose and benefits of the APY scheme in detail during her keynote address, DGM (PFRDA) Priyanka Gupta said, “The purpose of coming up with APY in 2015 was to ensure regular source of income for the workers in unorganised sector that constitutes 88% of country’s working population.”
“Besides ensuring recurring monthly income after attaining age of 60 years, the scheme also provides for the continuation of eligible pension to spouse in case of subscriber’s demise. Thereafter also, in case of spouse’s death, the entire pension corpus along with its returns is given to the nominee mentioned in the account”, She said while adding, “With such attractive features, it is our collective responsibility to take the APY scheme to the grassroots.” She also talked about the strategies that need to be adopted to improve the coverage of the scheme.
Earlier, General Manager (JK UTLBC) Syed Rais Maqbool highlighted the importance of APY saying, “The initiative of the Union Government to provide social security cover to the less-privileged and the most vulnerable sections of the society is unarguably the largest programme of its kind in the world.”
“By involving banks in this initiative, the Government has not only ensured that the benefits of the social schemes reach the last person in the remotest geographies, it has also added a soft dimension to the banks functioning and allowed the banks to participate in an empowerment wave sweeping across all the geographies of the country”, he added.
He further said, “I urge all of you to educate people about the benefits of the scheme to ensure not only the achievement of set targets in the process but the coverage that befits the purpose and scope of the scheme in J&K.”
While promising their support to the coverage of social security schemes Mission Director (PMJDY), Additional Mission Director (JK RLM) and other speaking dignitaries emphasised the importance of extending the net of social security schemes to safeguard the financial future of marginalised sections of the society.
The highlight of the event was on spot enrolment of beneficiaries under the scheme and felicitations for the achievers from banks and Business Correspondents who played an outstanding role in APY coverage, as acknowledgement of their remarkable performance.
For enhanced awareness of the bankers and BC’s besides newly enrolled beneficiaries on the occasion, PFRDA gave an overview of the APY scheme through a presentation that covered all the aspects regarding benefits and provisions available for common people under the scheme. Thereafter, the floor was thrown open for interaction wherein many achievers and beneficiaries expressed their experiences and raised queries regarding the scheme, which were duly responded by the DGM PFRDA to the satisfaction of the participants.
The program concluded with vote of thanks by the Bank’s DGM Manju Gupta.
