Kushal Konwar Briddha Pension Scheme

What is the Kushal Konwar Briddha Pension Scheme?

Kushal Konwar Briddha Pension Scheme is an old-age pension of the Panchayat and Rural Development Department, Government of Assam. According to the scheme page on the Assam state portal, the scheme was launched on 2 October 2018 and provides a monthly pension to elderly residents of Assam, credited directly into the beneficiary's bank account on the first day of every month.

The scheme is named after Kushal Konwar, the Assam freedom fighter hanged in 1943, and is often written locally as the Kushal Konwar Briddha Pension Achoni. It was announced with a target of roughly 13 lakh beneficiaries statewide, described at the launch as covering about 15,000 to 20,000 elderly people in every constituency, which made it one of the largest single welfare additions the state had made in a single announcement.

The scheme is administered through the local body closest to the beneficiary: the Gaon Panchayat in rural areas, and the Municipal Corporation, Municipal Board or Town Committee in urban areas, with the Development Block office also in the chain.

Key features

• Monthly pension for residents of Assam above 60 years.
• Payment on the first day of each month into the beneficiary's bank account.
• Administered by the Panchayat and Rural Development Department.
• Applications accepted online or offline through the local body.
• Targeted at about 13 lakh elderly residents.

How much is the Kushal Konwar Briddha Pension?

The Assam state portal's scheme entry describes the payment mechanism, a monthly credit into the beneficiary's bank account on the first of each month, but does not publish a fixed rupee rate on the page itself. Because state pension rates are revised by government order from time to time and are read alongside the central National Social Assistance Programme rates that the Panchayat and Rural Development Department also disburses, this guide does not state a figure that cannot be confirmed on an official page.

Ask at your Gaon Panchayat, Municipal Board or Town Committee for the rate currently being credited, and check the credit entry in your own passbook. Both are more reliable than any figure circulating on unofficial websites, several of which quote rates from different years for different pension schemes.

What is confirmed is the payment discipline: the pension is a monthly credit, paid directly to a bank account, on the first day of the month. A beneficiary who does not see a credit on the first should check the bank account status before assuming the pension has stopped.

Who is eligible for the Kushal Konwar Briddha Pension?

You can apply if:

• You are a resident of Assam.
• You are above 60 years of age.
• You are not receiving a pension under any other government scheme.
• You have a bank account in your own name, with the IFSC and account number available, since payment is a direct monthly credit.

You cannot apply if:

• You are already benefiting from another government pension scheme. The scheme is meant to reach elderly people who are not otherwise covered.
• Your son or daughter is in government employment. This exclusion is stated on the scheme page.
• You are a taxpayer with an income above Rs 2.5 lakh a year.
• You are below 60 years of age.

These three exclusions do most of the filtering. The government-employment exclusion is the one applicants most often trip over, because it looks at the children's employment and not only at the applicant's own circumstances.

What documents are required?

The application form itself asks for the applicant's name, parentage, gender, date of birth, caste category, full address including district, block, village and ward number, bank details, and mobile number, and it is completed with the applicant's signature or thumb impression.

How to apply for the Kushal Konwar Briddha Pension

1. Collect the application form from your Gaon Panchayat office if you live in a rural area, or from the Municipal Corporation, Municipal Board or Town Committee if you live in a town. The Development Block office also handles these applications.
2. Fill in the form completely; name, parentage, gender, date of birth, caste category, full address with district, block, village and ward number, and your mobile number.
3. Enter the bank details carefully. Copy the bank name, branch, IFSC code and account number straight from your passbook. An error here is the most common reason a sanctioned pension never reaches the beneficiary.
4. Attach the documents: age proof, Aadhaar, residence proof, photograph and the declaration that you draw no other government pension.
5. Sign the form, or put your thumb impression if you cannot sign, and submit it to the office you collected it from.
6. Collect an acknowledgement and note the date of submission, so you have a reference when you follow up.

The state portal notes that applications may be submitted online or offline. Assam's common services portal, Sewa Setu at sewasetu.assam.gov.in, is the state's single window for citizen services and also runs through Public Facilitation Centres and Citizen Service Centres across the state, so an elderly applicant who cannot fill an online form can have it done at a facilitation centre rather than travelling to a district office.

How do you check the status of your pension?

1. Ask at the office where you applied — the Gaon Panchayat, Municipal Board or Town Committee, whether your name has been included in the sanctioned beneficiary list for your ward or village.
2. Check your bank passbook on or after the first of the month. The credit appears there and is the practical confirmation that the pension is live.
3. Follow up at the Development Block if the local body says the case has been forwarded but no credit has started.

Why pension applications get rejected or payments stop

• Another government pension already being drawn by the applicant.
• A son or daughter in government employment, which is an express exclusion.
• Income above Rs 2.5 lakh a year for a taxpaying applicant.
• Age below 60, or age proof that does not support the claimed date of birth.
• Wrong or inactive bank account, where the account has been closed, is dormant, or the IFSC was written incorrectly.
• Account not seeded with Aadhaar, which blocks direct transfer.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the application form and the bank record.

A stopped payment is far more often a bank problem than a sanction problem. Take the passbook to the branch first and confirm that the account is active and Aadhaar-seeded before assuming the pension has been cancelled.

Where do you raise a grievance?

Raise a pension grievance first at the office that received the application. The Gaon Panchayat, Municipal Board or Town Committee, and then at the Development Block office. Departmental escalation is to the Panchayat and Rural Development Department, which publishes departmental information at pnrd.assam.gov.in and also routes grievances through the central public grievance portal.

For Sewa Setu service queries, the portal lists the email address sewasetu.queries@gmail.com and notes that its telephone helpline has been temporarily unavailable, so written queries by email are the more dependable route at present.

Applying for the Kushal Konwar Briddha Pension is free. No agent, dalal or middleman can add a name to the pension list, and no official will need your bank OTP to sanction a pension.