NEW DELHI: Online Pension sanction and payment tracking system will be available shortly for employees of all the departments and ministries of Central Government in order to avoid delays in pension matters and to ensure transparency and accountability.
Announcing this on Monday at the meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) of various pension organisations across the country, Union Minister of State PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Online Pension Sanction and Payment Tracking System “BHAVISHYA” has already been introduced by the Department of Pensions and nearly 2,500 Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) of different Ministries and Departments have already been registered. However, he said, he has fixed a timeline wherein shortly, 9,000 DDOs from all the Departments and Ministries of Central Government will get linked and also create links among the Directorate of Estates, e-Office and Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS).
This will prove a major breakthrough in bringing about new reforms for the benefit of retiring employees, he added.
Referring to Jeewan Praman provision launched about six months back, Dr Jitendra said, this provides the pensioners with the facility to submit digital life certificate based on Adhaar number from any convenient location. However, he hastened to add, this facility is optional and is in addition to the existing modes of submission of life certificate by a pensioner.
Dr Singh also referred to a new web-based application Sankalp introduced by the department to enable the channelisation of skill and experience of the retired government servants for meaningful purposes.
He said, soon after he came into this department, he realised that there was an ever increasing number of pensioners in this country who were getting superannuated at the time when they were at the prime of their expertise and experience in their respective field of profession and it was decided that their potential, talent and skill should not be allowed to go waste.
One more new initiative undertaken by the Modi Government, Dr Jitendra said, was introduction of pre-retirement counseling workshops for the employees approaching superannuation. 29 such workshops have already been conducted, he informed. Dr Singh called for more active involvement of pensioners in the day-to-day working of the Department and issued instructions that, in case of any contentious issue or an indisposed grievance, the concerned retired official or pensioner should be directly contacted by the Department in order to sort out issues across the board through a direct face-to-face interaction to save time and energy.
Also present on the occasion were Secretary ARPG and Pensions C Viswanath, Joint Secretary Vandana Sharma, senior officers of the ARPG and leaders of over 40 Pension organizations from across the country.