Minutes of the 32nd SCOVA meeting held under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble MOS(PP) on 12.04.2022, at Sardar Patel Bhawan, New Delhi
No. 42/05/2022-P&PW(D)
भारत सरकार/Government of India
Ministry of Personnel , Public Grievances & Pensions
Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare
3rd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan,
Khan Market, New Delhi- 110003
Date:- 20th May 2022
To
All the Pensioners’ Associations included in the SCOVA
Vide Resolution dated 25.01.2021
Sub:- Minutes of the 32nd SCOVA meeting held under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble MOS(PP) on 12.04.2022, at Sardar Patel Bhawan, New Delhi-reg
Please find enclosed herewith the minutes of the 32″d Meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) held under the chairmanship of Hon’ble MOS(PP) on I 2.04.2022 at Sardar Patel Bhawan, New Delhi .
Encl : As above
(Charanjit Taneja)
Under Secretary to the Government of India
Minutes of the 32nd Meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) held on 12.04.2022 under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble MOS(PP) at Sardar Patel Bhawan, New Delhi.
Welcoming Hon’ble MoS (PP), Secretary (P&PW), representatives of Pensioners Associations and the officers from various Ministries/Departments participating in the meeting, Joint Secretary (Pension) briefly stated the objectives of SCOVA meetings. He mentioned that SCOVA is a useful platform to provide feedback on implementation of policies/programs of DoPPW, to discuss & examine policy initiatives and to mobilize voluntary efforts to supplement the Govt action. Moreover, it provides the representative associations an opportunity for raising the issues concerning pensioners’ welfare directly before the concerned Ministries/Departments.
2. Addressing the participants, Secretary (P&PW) highlighted the recent reforms and initiatives undertaken by the Department for welfare of pensioners. He mentioned about the notification of revised and updated Central Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 2021 on 20.12.2021, by amalgamating several orders/clarifications issued during last 50 years. He also referred to several initiatives of the Department in regard to submission of life certificate by pensioners, e.g. Video based life certification, Doorstep DLC service through Postman/Gramin Dak Sevak of IPPB and Face Authentication Technique through Android phone, launched on 29.11.2021. He further mentioned about his recent interactive meetings with Pensioners’ Associations, Pension Disbursing Banks and the nodal officers of Ministries/Departments and stated that such meetings would be held at regular intervals.
3. Thereafter, discussions were held on the agenda items for the meeting. Director (PP) mentioned that an Action Taken Report on the decisions taken on the unresolved agenda items of 31st meeting of SCOVA had been sent to the Pensioners’ Associations by e-mail. It was observed that most of the items of 31st meeting of SCOVA had been resolved. The Departments concerned were requested to take a final decision, at the earliest, on the following agenda items of 31st meeting of SCOVA, which are remained unresolved:
i. Extension of benefit of Composite Hospitals to CAPF personnel
(Action: Ministry of Home Affairs/ Ministry of Health & Family Welfare)
ii. Booking of Holiday Homes for Central Government Pensioners-enhancement of time limit from 30 days to 60 days.
(Action: Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs/Directorate of Estates)
iii. Formal approval to Chandigarh Administration for allotment of plot to CGHS, Chandigarh.
(Action: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare /Ministry of Home Affairs)4. Thereafter, the agenda items for 32nd meeting were discussed. The gist of the discussion held and decisions taken on these items are as under:
(32.1) Shortage of Doctors, Specialists and Para-Medical Staff in CGHS posts due to increase in number of patients consequent on merger of Postal Dispensaries and need for creation / sanction of new posts to maintain patient and Doctor/ Para- medical staff ratio
(32.2) Periodical Health check-up of pensioners
(32.3) Issues relating to CGHS Wellness Centre Jammu, J&K
(32.4) -Non-acceptance of Nominations of pensioners for Life-Time Arrears by the Banks
(32.5) Holding of Pension Adalat meetings by Departments at national level
(32.6) – Payments of DA/DR arrears freezon for 18 months from 1.1.2020 to 30.06.2021
(32.7) – Enhancement of Additional Pension
(32.8) – Enhancement of Fixed Medical Allowance (FMA)
(32.9) – Difficulties in online submission of Accounts for grants.
(32.10) Enhancement of amount of Grants in aid to Pensioners’ Associations
(32.11) Providing a laptop to identified Pensioners Associations
2. In addition to the above agenda items, Central Government Pensioners’ Welfare Association (CGPWA), Jammu raised issues relating to functioning of CGHS Wellness Centre, Jammu i.e Delay in supply of life saving drugs, delay in payment of MRCs/Tracking system, delayed payments to empanelled hospitals and allotment of State land/construction of CGHS complex in Jammu.
3. In this connection, Hon’ble MOS(PP) asked DoP&PW to form a Fact-Finding Committee to assess first-hand information regarding hardships/difficulties faced by pensioners in obtaining CGHS facilities through CGHS Wellness Centres/CGHS empanelled private hospitals situated in Jammu region. Secretary (P&PW) informed MoS(PP) that a Committee to study the working of CGHS Wellness Centres/CGHS Empanelled Hospitals has already been constituted and it has conducted field visits at Dehradun, Chennai and Delhi. Hence, it was decided that the Committee would also conduct field visits at CGHS Wellness Centre and CGHS empanelled Hospitals at Jammu to assess hardships faced by CGHS beneficiaries especially pensioners. The Committee was also mandated to hold discussions with CGPWA Jammu and submit a detailed report in this regard and then take up the matter with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare accordingly.
4. In his concluding address, Hon’ble MoS(PP) and Chairman of SCOVA Dr. Jitendra Singh mentioned that several revolutionary changes were brought in since 2014 for bringing “Ease of Living” to the common man. He directed for setting up of a Single Window Portal for the benefit of pensioners and superannuated elder citizens. The Portal will enable the Department to have constant contact with pensioners and their associations across the country. The portal will regularly receive inputs, suggestions and grievances for prompt response. This Portal would be a single window digital mechanism for pensioners to raise their grievances and got the same resolved without approaching different authorities in person. He said that all Ministries responsible to process, sanction or disburse pension dues, would be interlinked to this system and
grievances would be forwarded after assessment to the concerned Ministry/Department for resolution. Pensioners as well as Nodal officer can view the status of the grievance online till disposal in the system. Hon’ble MoS (PP) said that we need to make good use of the knowledge, experience and efforts of the retired employees which can help in value addition to the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare.
5. Hon’ble MoS (PP) mentioned that since the launch of Doorstep Service for submission of Digital Life Certificate (DLC) through Postman in November 2020, more than 3,08,625 Life Certificates through India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) have been done. The facility to submit life certificate online through Jeevan Pramaan Portal was launched by the Prime Minister in November, 2014 with the objective to provide a convenient and transparent facility to pensioners for submission of Life Certificate. He also added that Doorstep banking for collection of Life Certificates is in place in 100 cities by Public Sector Banks and the number of Life Certificates done through Banking Agents is 4253. Face Authentication Technique through Android phone for submission of life certificate digitally has been launched on 29.11.2021 and till date, more than 20,500 Life Certificates through face authentication have been done. Similarly, he informed that as on date total number of DLCs submitted by the Central Government Pensioners is around 1,07,75,980 /- since 2014. In 2021, total DLCs submitted till date are 19,80,977.
6. Hon’ble MoS (PP) mentioned that the ‘Bhavishya’ platform, an integrated online pension processing system is at present being successfully implemented in the main Secretariat of 96 Ministries/ Departments including 813 Attached Offices. As on date, more than 1,50,000 cases have been processed ie. PPOs issued which includes more than 80,000 e-PPOs. Hon’ble Minister also informed that Bhavishya 8.0 was released in August, 2020 with a new feature to PUSH the ePPO in Digilocker. ‘Bhavishya’ platform is the first application to use the PUSH Technology of Digilocker.
7. Hon’ble MoS (PP) emphasised the need for creating widespread awareness of the initiatives for the welfare of pensioners through official and social media channels.
8. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair and all other participants.
*******