STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Describing the Central Govt Pensioners’ Welfare Association as one of the most active Pensioners’ Associations in the country, the Secretary to Govt Deptt of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare, V Srinivas said that it was most befitting that available valuable human resources in the shape of pensioners should contribute to the welfare of the society and extend help in accelerating the development process.
Addressing the members of the Pensioners’ Association and representatives of Pension Banks here this evening, Srinivas said that his department has been endeavoring to ensure that the pensioners should lead a life of dignity and remain active to give back to the society in whatever way possible.
He said that in the recent past the Pension Department has revolutionized the grievance redressal system and made it easy with quick access to the pensioners. In this connection, he referred to the pension portal, CPENGRAMS (centralized pension grievances redress and monitoring system) which is an online web-enabled system for speedy redressal of grievances related to pension by various Central Government Departments. Every case is regularly monitored at a higher level. The pensioners should use it for redressal of their pension related grievances.
Impressed by the work done by Jammu Association in utilizing the available talent for preparing project reports and making recommendations for rejuvenation of the water bodies in kandi areas, environmentally friendly bathing ghats at the pilgrim’s centres of Uttarvani and Purmadal, the Union Secretary said this technical support of pensioners would go a long way in contributing towards sustainable development even after retirement from active service.
Referring to the publications of the Association, Srinivas suggested to include article of the leading contributors from outside J&K for making publications more comprehensive and readable. He said that individual Associations in the country have taken up innovative projects like the one association published relevant judgments of constitutional courts that helped the Department in further simplifying the rules for pensioners. The Jammu Association should also consider such innovative projects.
He impressed upon the members of the Association and pension banks including JKB to join in the national campaign for Digital Life Certificate to benefit the pensioners. He said that the Department would cover 50 lakh pensioners for DLCs. He advised the Association to benefit from the SBI Pension Seva Portal presentation.
Responding to the issues raised by the General Secretary of the CGPWA, Jammu, K B Jandial, the Union Secretary, the matter of increasing Grant-in-aid to Pension is already under process and a decision would soon be taken.
Regarding the issue of two Wellness centres in Jammu, he said the CGHS has already accepted this demand and as confirmed by the representative of CGHS in the meeting, a second Wellness Centre would also be established in Jammu. The representative of the JKB also confirmed that henceforth the disbursement of DR sanctioned by the Central Govt for Central pensioners would be paid in one go and not in installments besides crediting pension on a fixed date as is being done by other pension banks.
Srinivas also agreed to consider the cases of pensioners relating to denial of third raise in salary after 30 years of service under MACP scheme, notional increment for those who had retired on 30th June in terms of judgments of CAT & Supreme Court and removal of anomaly in fixing pension in the apex grade of two PCCF.
Earlier, welcoming Srinivas Jandial apprised the multifarious activities of the Association and put forth demands. The Vice President of the Association, Dr Sudarshan Kumar also spoke about the issue of SPARSH defence pension.
The Director DoPPW, Dr Pramod Kumar presented the vote of thanks. Among others, BR Sharma, State Election Commissioner and Dr Ashok Bhan former DGP were also present. The representatives of CGHS, SBI, PNB & JKB also participated in the meeting.