Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Feb 29: Alleging that vested interests created artificial barriers to keep the erstwhile J&K State separate from rest of India, Union Minister of State in PMO with independent charge of North Eastern States, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that with abrogation of these barriers on August 5 and October 31 last year, Jammu and Kashmir has now fully entered into mainstream.
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Dr Jitendra Singh made these observations while inaugurating the ‘Pension Adalat’ and National Pension System (NPS) Awareness and Grievance Redressal Programme at Convention Centre, Jammu today. The Programme is being conducted by the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India. The Minister who also launched “Do You Know” Twitter Series on Family Pension, along with a booklet highlighting case studies with interpretation of Pension Rules said over a period of time artificial barriers were deliberately created by some vested interests to deprive the people of J&K of all benefits from Central Government so that these politicians can convincingly fill up their own coffers.
The Union Minister said all the Central laws and notifications will be implemented in the J&K UT one by one besides, the employment avenues will also be created as effective steps are being taken by Modi Government in this regard.
“All steps will be taken to create avenues of employment for people but the politicians will be rendered unemployed. We can’t guarantee jobs to the politicians and they have to remain idle for some time more”, he added.
The Union Minister, while reiterating that delimitation will also be held in J&K, said “but those who are more concerned for delimitation I doubt they may not be deprived of their constituencies”.
Reiterating the resolve of Narendra Modi Government to create employability, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the responsibility of the Government is not to give salaried jobs but to create employability. Many drastic steps were taken by Union Government in this regard, he added.
“If we want to emerge as five trillion economy and compete in economic world we have to come out of these shackles”, he said, adding “by creating avenues for employability under various schemes like Start Up launched by Modi Government we can bring livelihood to youth”.
Dr Jitendra Singh, while referring to situation in North Eastern States over five years back said the terrorism was also on peak there and when he visited first time to the region it was said that a Minister from Government of India has come. There were strikes and blasts all over. But now such a drastic change has come in the region during last five years that they forget to recall the past and region is fast moving on the path of progress and development, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh said Narendra Modi is particular of giving same type of impetus to J&K as given to NE region where the Government has also created a venture fund and when that region has progressed why can’t J&K”?, he asked.
Referring to pension Adalat which was held for the first time outside Delhi, Dr Jitendra Singh said that Prime Minister soon after taking over in 2014 had said that this Government should concentrate on those areas which have so far failed to receive attention. There is very good feed back of Modi Government schemes like Ujwala and rural electrification, he added.
He said for the first time that Pension Adalat is being conducted outside Delhi as
“The Government wants to reach every part of society, every part of country to get the pensioner’s grievances redressed in the real-time as aspired by the Prime Minister”, he said adding that the Pension Adalats will help in on-the-spot redressal of pensioners’ grievances which will give right of “Ease of Living” to the pensioners. Dr. Jitendra Singh also said that the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has directed that Pensioners be provided a hassle-free administrative system to resolve their grievances.
Speaking about the grievance redressal system, the Minister said that it was quite neglected before 2014 but the day the present Government came to power, the system has completely changed. The grievances have increased manifold from two lakhs to 20 lakhs which is evident that the people have a complete faith on the present Government, he added. The present Government has a grievance redressal rate from 95 percent to 100 percent per week and the pension Adalat started a few years back is proof of it, he reiterated.
The Minister also said that a number of reforms have been undertaken by the Government to facilitate the pensioners. Highlighting the initiatives of the present 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 further said that the retired population is increasing in India and it is in national interest to channelize their energies in a positive manner as this Government takes them as an asset and not as a liability. There should be smooth transition from their active life to retired life, he added.
The Minister also said that the real time portal, the dash board for the security personnel’s and a toll free number 1800111960 started by the Government is the proof that the present Government is serious towards the welfare of the employees both serving, retiring and the retired.
The Government under Narendra Modi performs with evidence and all the Central schemes and programmes have been implemented in a very progressive manner in J&K like in other parts of India and the success stories of people are before you who got benefited under Ujjawala Yojana and Saubhagya Scheme.
In his address, Advisor to the Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar said that it is good to see that this Pension Adalat is conducted outside Delhi for the first time which shows the seriousness of the Central Government towards the grievance redressal mechanism. It is a good opportunity for the pensioners, the retiring employees and the serving to get their grievances redressed here by asking all the relevant questions, he added.
Praising the Central Government for many of its initiatives taken in the last three years, the Advisor said that the pendency of the pension related cases has come down significantly which is a sign of a good governance.
The Secretary, Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare, Dr Kshatrapati Shivaji, in his welcome address, said that the aim of the Department is to provide a social security and a distinguished social life to the pensioners post-retirement. He further said that those who are not able to have a life certificate for many of the reasons, the Government has eased this route by asking the banks to come to their home and issue a life certificate.
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.
In the Pension Adalat, 342 cases pertaining to Central Government pensioners of various departments and Ministries like Textiles, Defence, Forests, ASI, GSI,CGWB, CWC, C&AG, NSSO, DGDD, BSF, SSB, CISF, CRPF, ITBP, MIB and JKGAD were discussed and subsequently 289 such cases were settled on spot. The 53 pending cases were asked to be processed and settled within 15 days by the concerned departments.
With respect to NPS subscribers, cases pertaining to Central Government Employees, as well as those of the UT of Jammu & Kashmir, numbering more than 200, whose NPS accounts have certain irregularity, were taken up and their respective Pr. AOs and DDOs were called for a briefing and corrective action, so that the subscribers do not suffer continuous loss, resulting in lower annuity value, post their retirement.
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