Dear Comrades,
A meeting was held on 281h
August, 2012 at 11:30 AM in the Conference Room, 5th Floor, Sardar Patel
Bhavan, New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Shri Sanjay Kothari, Secretary
(Pension, AR&PG) with the officials of 15 Departments/Ministries having
maximum number of unrevised Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) pertaining to
pre-2006 pensioners/Family pensioners. The objective of this meeting was to
review the progress made by these Ministries/Departments in the revision of
PPOs in respect of pre-2006 pensioners.
2. The list of
participants is at Annexure — I.
3. Opening the discussion,
Secretary (Pension, AR & PG) said that the areas of concern for this
Department were the outstanding cases of pre-2006 pensioners. He felt the cases
of pensioners should be dealt with sympathetically emphasizing the fact that
all of us would be pensioners in future.. He stated Ministries where pendency
was quite large and it .was not feasible to clear the pending cases with the
existing staff, avenues. for appointment of Consultant may be explored so that
the work of revision of pension for pre-2006 pensioners does not suffer.
4. Secretary (Pension, AR
& PG) then took up the Ministry-wise figures, starting with Ministry of
Home Affairs (MHA), which has the largest number of pending cases. The
representative of MHA, informed that in pre-1990 cases there are limitations of
availability of records and finding out the status whether pensioners are alive
and non-receipt of Annexure III. The cases falling under Extraordinary Pension
Rules and Liberalized Pension Awards have to be processed manually. Therefore,
their clearance may take longer time. Ministry of Home Affairs informed that
information contained in Annexure III may not be sufficient in the case of
pre-1990 cases. Ministry of Home Affairs also stated that despite publishing an
advertisement in the newspapers for getting the missing information with
respect to pre-.2006 pensioners, they had not received adequate response to the
same. It was further informed that information required for the purpose is not
being provided by the _pensioners/family pensioners concerned either. Secretary
(Pension, AR & PG) advised them to launch a drive to clear the pending cases.
5. Secretary (Pension
& AR &PG) suggested that all Departments should make one more effort to
elicit response from pensioners. An advertisement may be posted on. the website
of Department of Pension and PW indicating therein to contact DD0s/HOOs in the Departments
who are willing to respond to the queries of the pensioners in this regards.
Department of Personnel Sr. Training, Department of Financial Services, CBDT,
CBEC and D/o Pension & PW were agreeable to putting up an advertisement on
the web-site of Department of Pension & PW for the pensioners to provide
the information specific to them which is required for revising the cases. In
case other Ministries also desire they will also be included.
(Action-Ministries desirous of putting up the advertisement)
6. Some of the salient
points emerged during the discussions are as under:-
i). CPAO. Informed that they had taken a meeting with the
representatives of all Associations of Pensioners and requested them to help
pensioners to send their information for revision of their PPOs. CPAO also
informed that the Department- wise pendency was already available in the
web-site which may be referred to by the Ministries/Departments while clearing
the cases.
(ii) In cases of family pension, date of birth of the spouse is a
mandatory figure. it is informed that in cases where no information is
available, instruction about treatment of date of birth as circulated vide
Department of Pension & Pensioner Welfare OM No. 38/37/08-P&PW(A),
dated 21/05/2009 and No. 1/19/2011- P&PW(E), dated 03/08/2011 (copies
enclosed) may he followed. CPAO had raised some queries in this regard
recently. A copy of this Department’s ID Note, dated 15/05/2012 in response
thereto is also enclosed for information.
A special drive may be undertaken by all Departments to liquidate
the pending cases. Efforts should be made to liquidate pre-2006 cases by 31sE
December, 2012 and pre-1990 cases by 31st March, 2013. (Action-All
Ministries/Departments)
In respect of pre-2006 pensioners, Ministry of Home Affairs agreed
to reduce the pendency to less than 5000 by the end of December, 2012. Ministry
of Urban Development agreed to reduce the number to 1000 by this period.
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting agreed to bring down the pendency to
50%. Other Ministries agreed that pendency figures will be reduced to less than
500 by the end of December, 2012. (Action – all Ministries/Departments)
(v) It was felt that since the pensioners were in direct contact
with the Banks, the system of nodal officers in various Banks may be
strengthened. In this regard necessary action may be taken by Department of
Financial Services. The banks could provide guidelines to the pensioners to
approach the concerned Pay & Accounts Officer/HODs concerned for getting their
PPOs revised, in such cases which are not yet revised. As the Banks were
continuously sending Annexure III in duplicate and at times in triplicate also,
it was felt that the Ministries in coordination with PAOs and with the help of
CPAO may send pensioners’ specific information to the Banks for the remaining
pending cases so that information received from the Banks can be used more
fruitfully. The Department of Pension & PW will also place the link of the
nodal officers of various banks in their website for the benefit of pensioners.
(Action – all Ministries/Departments, CPAO, Department of P&PW, Department
of Financial Services)
7. In view of the huge
pendency of pre-2006 revision of pension cases, Secretary (Pension, AR &
PG) stated that he would be writing to all the Secretaries concerned- asking
them to review the pendency regularly. He also asked that various Ministries
may include this as an agenda item for the senior officers meeting being held
regularly in various Ministries so that the pendency can be reduced to zero.
