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New Delhi, Jan 31: The central government has decided that pensioners' life certificates will be collected from their doorstep, saving them from hassles of visiting pension disbursing banks.

The service will be charged an amount not exceeding Rs 60, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW).

Every year a pensioner is required to give proof of him being alive to banks in order to ensure continued pension. These certificates can be submitted online or by visiting the bank.

"The department has taken a landmark step to make life easier for senior citizens to submit their annual life certificate for continued pension," it said.

Directions have been issued to all pension disbursing banks to send SMS or emails to all their pensioners on October 24, November 1, November 15 and November 25 every year reminding them to submit their annual life certificates by November 30, the statement said.

"The bank in addition will also ask such pensioners through SMS/email as to whether they are interested in submission of life certificate through a chargeable doorstep service, the charge not exceeding Rs 60, it said.

The department for stricter monitoring and in order to ensure that no pensioners are left out has also directed the banks to make an exception list on December 1 every year of those pensioners who fail to submit their life certificate and issue another SMS or email to them for submitting it.

The Central Pension Processing Cells (CPPC) of the pension disbursing banks shall now be duty bound to submit a report to the DoPPW in January, February and March.

The report will indicate the total number of pensioners who have not given their life certificate along with a breakup of the certificates submitted physically and through digital means, the statement said.

This is a landmark step from the side of the central government showing due care for pensioners, it said.

This step is in addition to the order issued in July last year, vide which all pensioners aged 80 years and above have been given an exclusive window to submit their life certificate w.e.f. 1st October every year instead of 1st November every year, the statement added.

Domestic flights resumed operations on a truncated schedule on Monday with the first aircraft departing from the Delhi Airport for Pune, more than two months after a nationwide lockdown was announced to combat COVID-19.

The first flight to take off was an IndiGo aircraft to Pune, flying passengers stranded in the national capital since the lockdown was announced on March 24.

Passengers were screened at the airport with electronic thermometers, and revised protocol for air travel that included santisation of luggage through ultra-violent scanners, and maintaining physical distancing.

Only asymptomatic passengers were allowed to enter the airport.

Passengers were also seen wearing face masks and face shields given to them at the embarkation point by the airline to minimise the chances of infection while onboard.

The first flight arrived at Delhi Airport from Ahmedabad – a SpiceJet aircraft – at around 8:00 am.

BJD Lok Sabha member Anubhav Mohanty was among those who took the Air Vistara flight to Bhubaneshwar that departed Delhi airport at 6:50 am.

The first flight to take off from Mumbai was an IndiGo aircraft that departed for Patna at 6:45 am, while passengers from Lucknow were the first to reach the financial capital on an IndiGo aircraft that touched down at 8:20 am.

The food & beverage and retail outlets, which were closed for the past 63 days, opened at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.

The flight services resumed after a day of long and hard negotiations between the Centre and the states on Sunday.

All states finally agreed to accept at least some flights but announced different quarantine and self-isolation rules for arriving passengers to address apprehension about infections being brought in from other cities.

The Centre had issued guidelines for all modes of domestic travel that advised all asymptomatic passengers to self-monitor their health parameters for 14 days on completion of the journey and report to health authorities if they displayed any symptoms for COVID-19.

However, the Centre had allowed state governments to prescribe their own health protocols for disembarking passengers which led to differential guidelines across the country.

New Delhi, Jun 12: The Supreme Court on Friday slammed the Delhi government on news reports showing deplorable condition of medical wards in Delhi, where dead bodies were not only in wards, but were also found in lobby and waiting areas.

The apex court termed the situation in Delhi "horrendous, horrific and pathetic". It slammed the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government for its handling of dead bodies, terming it "very sorry state of affairs".

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah took suo moto cognizance of the ill-treatment being meted out to Covid patients in hospitals and also the undignified way in which dead bodies of Covid patients were being handled.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said there was a case in Delhi where dead bodies were found alongside patients, who were undergoing treatment.

Justice Shah questioned Mehta, "So what have you done?"

The bench termed the situation in Delhi "horrendous, horrific and pathetic", and reproached the government for patients being placed alongside stacks of dead bodies in the hospitals. The bench noted that patients' families aren't even informed about deaths and in some cases, families haven't been able to attend the last rites, too.

The bench noted that there is a problem with the way the pandemic was being fought in the national capital.

"The number of tests conducted are low in Delhi compared to Chennai and Mumbaia...Why are tests so less in Delhi?" the bench said.

"Nobody should be denied testing onn technical reasons...simplify procedure so more and more can test for Covid," said the bench.

The top court pointed out that it is the duty of the state to conduct testing so that more people know about their health status.

The top court also noted that the situation is grim even in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.