More than 18 lakh social security pension beneficiaries in Karnataka have had their payments temporarily suspended after a statewide verification exercise flagged over 23 lakh cases as ‘suspect’, putting the spotlight on how the state’s welfare schemes are being accessed.

According to Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara’s replies to separate unstarred questions by MLAs D Vedavyas Kamath and Dr Y Bharat Shetty, the government identified 23,14,544 suspect pension beneficiaries as of August 13, 2026. Of these, 18,06,032 beneficiaries had their pensions temporarily suspended.

The verification drive was initiated following complaints that people who did not meet the eligibility criteria were continuing to receive social security pensions.

The state used its Samyojana mobile application, which draws on the family database to flag beneficiaries against several parameters.

These included IT payees, APL card holders, underage applicants, violations of income limits, and information available through the Human Resource Management System, or HRMS.

The flagged cases were then subjected to physical verification by village accountants. Officials collected supporting documents and forwarded the cases to tahsildars for approval. The government has said that pensions will be restored once beneficiaries establish that they meet the eligibility requirements.

Karnataka currently has 83,12,536 registered pension beneficiaries, while 62,43,640 beneficiaries received pensions in July 2026.

Among the various schemes, the Sandhya Suraksha Yojane recorded the highest number of suspect cases at 12,61,610.

It was followed by the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme with 5,63,938 cases, widow pension with 3,36,746, and physically disabled pension with 2,56,750.

The other schemes flagged were Manaswini pension with 17,360 cases, endosulfan victims’ pension with 883, pension for widows of farmers who died by suicide with 526, Mythri pension with 454, and acid attack victim pension with eight cases.

The government said the temporary suspensions were imposed in cases where beneficiaries were either not residing at the recorded address, unwilling to produce the required documents, or had not submitted income certificates.

Belagavi tops suspect pension cases

The district-wise figures show significant variations in the number of beneficiaries flagged during the exercise.

  • Belagavi: 1,82,758 suspect beneficiaries, of whom 1,51,311 had pensions temporarily suspended.
  • Bengaluru Urban: 1,36,669 suspect beneficiaries, with 1,24,073 temporary suspensions.
  • Mysuru: 1,33,831 suspect beneficiaries, with 1,11,808 temporary suspensions.
  • Kalaburagi: 1,18,387 suspect beneficiaries, with 98,984 temporary suspensions.
  • Tumakuru: 1,18,217 suspect beneficiaries, with 71,111 temporary suspensions.
  • Davanagere: 1,04,805 suspect beneficiaries, with 94,012 temporary suspensions.
  • Raichur: 1,01,272 suspect beneficiaries, with 89,387 temporary suspensions.

The figures indicate that the exercise has affected a substantial section of Karnataka’s social security pension network, though the government has maintained that the suspensions are temporary and eligible beneficiaries can have their payments restored after completing the verification process.