Various pension schemes under the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), administered by the rual development ministry, will be restructured and all payments under it will be done through an Aadhaar-based payment system, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said here today.

“The restructured system will be in place by 10th of March this year and it will ensure that each beneficiary under old age, disabilities and widow pension schemes will get one’s entitlement every month and there will be no delay in payments,” he said.

He said the central government spends nearly Rs 8,000 crore under the NSAP, but the devolvement of funds is being done in a complicated process and in a layered manner. This, he said, will be rectified and only one state agency will be identified for receipt of funds for final disbursement to passbook holders through the Aadhaar-based system.

The minister said he had already written to the finance ministry for relaxation of certain norms like reducing the criteria for disability to 40 percent from the existing 80 percent, which leads to exclusion of a very large number of disabled persons in rural areas.

 He said the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme gives assistance of Rs 200 per month to BPL widows over the age of 40, which can be modified to cover widows over the age of 18.