A digital pension-processing pilot has enabled about 2,250 retired employees of Thane Zilla Parishad to receive their monthly pensions on the first day of the month, a change Maharashtra’s rural development department plans to extend to all 34 Zilla Parishads in the state.
Thane ZP CEO Ranjit Yadav said the payment was made after the existing system was modified and connected to digital processing. Earlier, pension payments took at least a week to be processed, he said. The faster schedule is intended to help pensioners plan their monthly finances more reliably.
The beneficiaries included retirees linked to the Zilla Parishad headquarters and offices at the taluka level. Thane ZP said the payments covered 424 pensioners at its headquarters, 344 in Murbad, 449 in Shahapur, 261 in Bhiwandi and 480 in Kalyan, with the remaining beneficiaries from Ambernath.
According to officials, the pilot involved collecting and verifying information from different administrative levels through a digital process. The verified information was then processed more quickly, reducing the time required for records to move from the concerned department to the state treasury and finally to pensioners’ bank accounts.
Yadav said preparatory work in Thane was completed within the stipulated time with the involvement of Chief Accounts and Finance Officer Vaijnath Buradkar and Deputy Chief Executive Officer for General Administration Avinash Fadtare. The report also said similar work was carried out in other districts during the pilot phase, including Nagpur and Sangli, while another reference in the account identified Satara alongside Nagpur.
The initiative is significant because Zilla Parishad pension payments involve multiple administrative layers, from local offices and district-level accounts sections to the state treasury. Digitising the collection and verification of records is intended to reduce physical movement of files and the delays associated with transmitting pension information across these levels.
The rural development department oversees 34 Zilla Parishads, which administer services through headquarters, panchayat samitis and village-level offices. A broader rollout would therefore affect retirees connected to a large administrative network across Maharashtra’s rural districts.
An official said the process could be replicated elsewhere after a formal announcement. The department has not yet announced a statewide implementation date or provided details of the final operating framework for all 34 Zilla Parishads. The next formal announcement is expected to clarify the rollout schedule and the districts that will be covered.
