Delhi’s Social Welfare Department has ordered district officials to clear 9,946 pending old age pension applications within seven days, after more than half of the applications received between January 1 and September 8 remained undecided. The department has launched a special drive while retaining the existing 45-day timeline for processing new applications.
According to department data, 16,194 applications were received during the period for the available old age pension slots. Of these, 6,150 applications have been approved and 98 have been rejected, while 9,946 remain pending. The figures cover applications submitted for the Delhi old age pension scheme, which currently has 38,706 total slots.
The department said 22,512 slots are still vacant. District Social Welfare Officers have been instructed to monitor the pending cases daily and ensure that they are disposed of within the special seven-day deadline. Applications cannot be kept pending without a valid and recorded reason, according to the directions issued to district-level officials.
The largest backlog has been reported in North-West 2, where 4,058 applications are pending. The western district has 1,675 pending cases, followed by North-East with 1,626. The remaining pending applications include 897 in North, 489 in South, 399 in New Delhi, 375 in North-West 1, 293 in East, 106 in Central and 18 in South-West.
The department has also directed that cases delayed beyond the prescribed e-SLA timeline be reviewed separately. The e-SLA framework sets service-delivery timelines for government applications, and the department’s instructions require officials to identify cases that have crossed the applicable deadline.
A senior official cited a shortage of officers at the district level as one reason for the backlog. In several cases, the official said, a single District Social Welfare Officer is handling the responsibilities of two or three districts. The staffing issue has emerged alongside the accumulation of applications across several districts.
The seven-day deadline applies only to the existing backlog and does not alter the 45-day timeline for new applications. The department’s latest instructions therefore combine a short-term disposal target for pending cases with the continuation of the standard processing period for applications submitted going forward.
District officers are expected to report progress through daily monitoring during the special campaign. The department’s next administrative milestone is the completion and review of the pending applications within the seven-day clearance period.
