New Delhi: The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated the ‘Pension Adalat’ here today, organised by the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India. He also presented the ‘Anubhav’ awards 2018 to six pensioners for their contribution towards creating institutional memory for the departments. On the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh also launched a booklet—“An era of sustained reforms for Central Government Pensioners” enumerating simplification of rules and steps initiated to strengthen the Grievance Portal and make it user friendly.
Inaugurating the All India Pension Adalat, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that Pension Adalats will help in on-the-spot redressal of pensioners’ grievances. This has given the right of “Ease of Living” to the pensioners, he added. Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the Prime Minster Shri Narendra Modi has directed that Pensioners be provided a hassle-free administrative system to resolve their grievances. Dr. Jitendra Singh also appealed to the States to implement the Good Governance measures taken by the Central Government.
Speaking about the benefits of the Grievance Portal for the Central Government pensioners called CPENGRAMS, the Minister said that we have saved huge resources and precious time of the people by using the technology.
The Minister said that a number of reforms have been undertaken by the Government to facilitate the pensioners. Highlighting the initiatives of the Government, he said that one of the main initiatives taken was to fix the minimum pension at Rs 1,000. He said that other initiatives such as Bhavishya, Sankalp, Jeevan Praman-digital life certificates, doing away with the obsolete laws and self-attestation, among others have also been taken. He said that a mechanism has been put in place where pensioner will get PPO on the day of his retirement. He further said that the retired population is increasing in India and we should do our best to channelize their energies in a positive manner. There should be smooth transition from their active life to retired life, he added. The pensioners should re-orient themselves to a new beginning, the Minister said.
The Pension Adalats are being convened with the objective of bringing on a common table the aggrieved pensioner, the concerned department, the bank or CGHS representative, wherever relevant, so that such cases can be settled across the table within the framework of extant rules.
On the occasion, Dr. Jitendra Singh gave away the third Anubhav Awards-2018 to six Central Government employees to recognise their contribution to the Anubhav portal which is designed to create an institutional memory for successive generations of Central Government employees. Congratulating the awardees, Dr Jitendra Singh said that under Anubhav, the retiring employees give an account of their experiences during service. He said that these experiences are an important account for research and resource for administrative reference and thus will help in improving our working.
The Anubhav scheme was instituted at the call of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in the year 2015. Till date, more than 5,000 contributions have been made for Anubhavs by Government employees from 91 Departments.
The Secretary, Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare and Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, Shri K.V. Eapen, in his welcome address, said that the aim of the Department is to provide a life to dignity to the pensioners post-retirement.
Besides the Pension Adalat, a Pre-Retirement Counselling (PRC) was also conducted for the Central Government employees who are about to retire in the next six months. 600 retiring Central Government employees participated in this PRC out of which a significant number were from the Central Armed Police Forces. The objective of the PRC Workshop is to create awareness about post-retirement entitlements as well as to educate them on advance planning for retirement including medical facilities and participation in voluntary activities after retirement.
