A 71-year-old man in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district did not receive two months of old-age pension before his death, after a departmental inquiry found that the payment failed during validation on the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) system.
Soubhagya Behera, block development officer of Parjang, confirmed on Monday that ₹2,000 due to Ghanshyam Sahu of Roda village for August and September 2026 was not credited to his Aadhaar-linked bank account. The amount comprised two monthly instalments of ₹1,000 each.
Sahu, who lived alone after the death of his wife around four years ago, was found dead in Bauti forest within the limits of Parjang police station. Police have launched an investigation into the death. The report does not establish that the unpaid pension caused it.
According to the BDO, records on the NSAP portal showed that fund-transfer validation for the two instalments was generated on September 30. The transaction was subsequently recorded as “validation failed” and “rejected”, preventing the funds from being transferred to Sahu’s account.
The inquiry was conducted after Dhenkanal collector Ashish Iswar Patil directed officials to verify whether the pension had reached Sahu’s bank account. Villagers told officials that Sahu had repeatedly expressed concern about not receiving the pension and was facing financial hardship.
Behera said he would communicate the findings to the district social security officer for further action. The confirmation places the payment failure within the administrative chain responsible for processing and disbursing social-security pensions, although the report does not specify why the validation was rejected or whether the error affected other beneficiaries.
Following the incident, the BDO instructed all sarpanchs and panchayat executive officers in Parjang block to immediately report cases in which beneficiaries face difficulty receiving pension payments. The stated purpose of the instruction is to allow corrective action before payment delays continue.
