Lakhs of Punjab Government pensioners, including former legislators, have not received their pension for April, though it has been six days into May, triggering criticism of the government for the delay.Facing backlash, the government has decided to transfer the pension amount to a leading public sector bank for immediate disbursal to around 2.5 lakh pensioners.Sources in the Finance Department said a meeting was held between senior government officials and representatives of the bank on Wednesday. The bank reportedly sought time to switch pension accounts to the government’s Pension Seva Portal, a digital platform to manage pension details and submission of life certificates.The bank’s request has been acceded to and the state government has decided to release the amount to the bank. “The pension should be in beneficiaries’ accounts by Thursday,” said a senior functionary in the government.Punjab has around 4.5 lakh pensioners with Rs 22,465.29 crore annual outgo. Around 2.5 lakh pensioners have accounts with a leading public sector bank, which disburses roughly 60 per cent of the pension amount. While the other banks have switched to the government portal, this bank has failed to digitally verify around 70,000 accounts, making the switch difficult.A senior official of the pension division of the bank said the matter would be resolved soon. A top functionary in the state Finance Department said all banks were told to switch to the portal and the deadline was pushed forward thrice. “There is no paucity of funds with the government, but the banks have to switch over to the digital platform,” he said.Gurbhej Singh, president of the Pension Association Finance Commissioners’ Secretariat, Punjab, said it was unfortunate that pension disbursal was delayed. “Pensioners have a fixed income and they rely on this for meeting their expenses and any delay can be catastrophic for many. The people in villages have no access to computers. The digitisation of pension accounts and disbursal will only add to their problems,” he said.Former MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha said it was for the first time in 70 years that former MLAs had not received their pension till the sixth day of a month. “My wife, a retired school lecturer, has also not received her pension. I want to highlight the poor fiscal health of Punjab,” he said.