Chandigarh, 8 November 2026: State Bank of India (SBI) has organised an awareness and assistance programme for pensioners from Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula as part of the nationwide Digital Life Certificate (DLC) Campaign 5.0. A local report published on Sunday said more than 150 pensioners participated, with bank officials helping attendees understand Aadhaar-based face authentication and update digital life certificates. The local attendance figure comes from the event report and has not been independently audited.
What happened at the Chandigarh Tricity programme?
According to Babushahi’s report dated 8 November, the SBI seminar brought together pensioners from Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. Officials explained how eligible pensioners can generate a life certificate using face authentication and assisted participants with certificate updates. The report does not provide a verified count of certificates successfully generated at the event, so the number of attendees should not be mistaken for the number of completed certificates.
The initiative is part of a wider government campaign, not a new pension payment or a change in pension eligibility. A digital life certificate provides an electronic way for pensioners to establish their continued eligibility under the rules of their pension-disbursing institution.
National campaign runs through 30 November
The Union Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare says the fifth nationwide DLC campaign runs from 1 to 30 November 2026, with banks, post offices and pensioner organisations supporting submissions. Its 30 October campaign announcement identified 19 participating banks and outreach planned across roughly 2,000 cities and districts.
In a 6 November government update, the ministry reported nearly 40 lakh digital life certificates generated nationally during the campaign’s first five days, compared with approximately 25 lakh in the comparable period a year earlier. It said face authentication accounted for nearly 80% of submissions in that initial period. These are national figures, not Chandigarh Tricity totals.
How face authentication can help pensioners
The Jeevan Pramaan system allows eligible pensioners to submit a life certificate digitally, including through supported smartphone-based face authentication. The government says the approach can reduce dependence on visits to bank branches or separate fingerprint-scanning hardware. Pensioners should follow the current instructions of their pension-disbursing bank or authority, confirm the required Aadhaar-linked details and retain their submission acknowledgement.
Not every pension scheme follows identical submission dates or processes. Pensioners should check the applicable requirements before assuming that a certificate submitted through one route will automatically satisfy every institution. Official guidance is available through the Jeevan Pramaan portal.
Why it matters in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula
The Tricity includes many retired public-sector and government employees, making access to straightforward pension administration a practical local service issue. For older people with mobility constraints, reliable assisted digital submission can reduce travel and waiting time. The Chandigarh event demonstrates local outreach within a national programme, although no independently verified Tricity-wide adoption figures were released with the report.
The government’s April 2026 parliamentary response also described the role of smartphone face authentication and annual life-certificate requirements. For pensioners unable to use a smartphone, bank-assisted and other authorised submission routes may remain available depending on their scheme.
What remains unverified?
The precise Chandigarh venue, the number of successfully processed certificates, and any follow-up local camp dates were not independently established from an SBI-issued local release. The more-than-150 attendance estimate is attributed to the local event report. No claims are made here about new pension entitlements, payment increases or guaranteed processing outcomes.
Featured image: Illustrative archival photograph of SBI’s Chandni Chowk branch in Delhi, taken in 2022. Photo by Pinakpani / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. This photograph does not depict the Chandigarh seminar.
