Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Sept 20: 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 inaugurated here today India’s first-ever “Pension Adalat”, exclusively devoted to resolve the issues and grievances related to pensioners.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Department of Pensions was never very high in priority in the functioning of earlier governments. But soon after the present government came in, it was the personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his deep concern for every section of society that one of the first major decisions taken by the government was to fix the minimum pension at Rs.1000/-. This came as a dream-come-true for several elderly pensioners, some of whom were drawing a pension of family pension as meager as Rs.30/- or 40/- only, he said.
The requirement of providing a life or living certificate by a pensioner, said Dr Jitendra Singh, was also made easy through the use of biometric option of providing this proof. In addition, several new programmes like “Bhavishya” and “Sankalp” have been introduced during the last three years to help the pensioners to plan out their future course of life post-superannuation, he added. The launch of the Pension Adalat today, according to Dr Jitendra Singh, would reduce the delays in settlement of the legitimate dues and grievances of the pensioners. This, he said, will go a long way in instilling among the elder pensioners, a sense of being cared for and would also dispel the feeling of isolation or neglect. In addition, he said, the nature of problems and difficulties faced by the pensioners would get identified through the process and will also serve as our resource and research input for improving the future functioning.
Each Pension Adalat, Dr Jitendra Singh said, will have a combination of officers from the concerned departments, banking authorities and various other related agencies in order to enable on-the-spot decisions on various issues which, he said, normally range from non-payment of family pension, revision of pension, payment of pension arrears after death of pensioner, non-payment of fixed medical allowance, etc. With all the concerned representatives available, this could avoid undue delay and harassment for the elder citizens, he said.
On the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh also distributed “Anubhav” awards on the basis of the best account of experience written by the superannuating officials. This new practice was also started by the Modi Government two years ago.
Secretary to President Sanjay Kothari was the guest of honour on the occasion. Union Secretary ARPG C. Viswanath and other senior officers of Government of India were also present.
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