Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Feb 9: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today held a “Pension Adalat” at which 31 cases of pension disputes or grievances, of different nature,were cleared in a single sitting.
The cases disposed off today belonged to a wide range of Government Departments and Ministries, including Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Railways, the office of Cabinet Secretariat, Department of Defence, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Department of Legal Affairs, office of Comptroller & Auditor General of India, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Higher Education, Doordarshan, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, etc.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh complimented the Department of Pension, which was relatively less visible till a few years ago, but has now shot into prominence and has become vibrant because of its pro-active approach. Not only this, he said, the Department of Pension is now extending its activities beyond preparing pension orders and disposing off pensions to an area of innovation and research as well as post-retirement activities for the pensioners.
Referring to the budget for 2017-18 presented last week by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the special provisions included in the budget for the elder citizens are actually an acknowledgement by the Modi Government of the presence of this large chunk of population who retire at the prime of their health, energy and experience, and deserve to be constructively utilized for the society and the nation in the last decades of their life. In this regard, he referred to the provision of tax exemption on Interest earned by senior citizens on their deposits as well as the newly introduced health insurance cover up to Rs.5 lakh.
Dr Jitendra Singh also referred to some of the innovative programmes introduced in the last three years which include, for example, “Bhavishya”, “Anubhav”, pre-retirement workshops, etc. In addition, he said, all the pension records as well as the PPO records are now available on-line for the benefit of the employees and the same can also be accessed anytime anywhere through mobile app.
Dr Jitendra Singh also expressed satisfaction over the CPGRAMS grievance disposal rate having gone up to 82.21% average in the year 2016-17 and in certain given months crossing over 95%.
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