Minutes of the 26th meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) held on 03rd February, 2015 under the Chairmanship of Honorable MOS(PP)

To
All the Pensioners Associations under present SCOVA

Subject: Minutes of the 26th meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) held on 03rd February, 2015 under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble MOS(PP).

Please find enclosed herewith a copy of minutes of the 26th meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) held on 03rd February, 2015 under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble MOS (PP) at Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, New Delhi for your kind perusal and necessary action.

Minutes of the 26th meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) held on 03.02.2015 under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble MOS (PP) at Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, New Delhi.

The list of participants is at Annexure-A

2. At the outset Joint Secretary (Pension) welcomed Hon’ble MOS (PP), Secretary, Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare, representatives of Pensioners Associations and the participating officers of various Ministries/Departments. It was stated that SCOVA is a multiparty forum and a platform for sharing views. Under the able leadership of the Hon’ble Minister, the Department will continue to streamline the various policy issues for the benefit of the pensioners.

3. Thereafter, Hon’ble MOS (PP), Chairman, SCOVA, welcomed all participants to the meeting. He said that presently the number of pensioners is more than the number of employees in service. Hence, there is a large pool of experience which can be utilized in a constructive manner. MOS (PP) also mentioned that the Department has been able to effectively deliver on most of what was promised. Fixed Medical Allowance (FMA) has been increased from Rs.300 to Rs.500, online grievance monitoring system CPENGRAMS is being used to keep the number of outstanding grievances to a minimum, BHAVISHYA (online pension sanction and payment tracking system) has been extended to 25 Ministries/Departments. MOS(PP) also stated that the Pensioner’s Portal is a part of the e-governance system which is in itself a priority of the present Government. He said that initiative “Sankalp” had immense potential to contribute to the welfare of pensioners  who could continue to contribute to the society after their retirement. Regarding the issue of agenda points suggested by the various Pensioners Associations being summarily rejected, it was informed that due importance was attached to all agenda points. However, owing to time constraints some of them are taken up for discussion during the SCOVA meeting and the items which were specific to a particular Department were forwarded to the concerned Ministries/Departments for taking necessary  action. Hon’ble MOS(PP) emphasized that each Department should look at the pensioners as their own responsibility and treat them as their family members.

It was pointed out by Pensioners Associations that there has been delay in payment of the enhanced amount of Fixed Medical Allowance in several Postal Circles. The instructions of Department of Posts to Postal Circles for accessing the orders from the website of DoP&PW and send the copies to the Pension Disbursing Offices without delay are not being followed. A suggestion was made that the Heads of Postal Divisions (instead of the designated Officer in Postal Page 2 of 8 Circle Offices) may be authorised to download the relevant order from the website of DoP&PW and send the copies to the Head Post Offices to effect timely payment to the Pensioners.

4. Thereafter, the Action Taken Report of 25th SCOVA meeting and Fresh Agenda items of 26th SCOVA meeting were taken up for discussion.

5. Discussion on ATR of 25th SCOVA meeting:

i) Sl.No 1 of ATR: Status of issue of revised PPOs to pre-2006 pensioners.

a) CPAO informed that 29,615 cases were pending for revision. Despite several efforts, no further information was coming forth in respect of the pre-1990 PPOs. They have approached banks and pensioners to obtain the missing information. CPAO was advised to hold meetings with individual Ministries and sort out cases issue wise so that  solutions  could be worked out and the pendency brought down to zero. CPAO was also advised to discuss the issue with Ministry of Railways and Department of Defence who had shown remarkable progress and brought down the pendency to Nil.

(Action: CPAO)

b) One of the Pensioner Association intimated that a number of cases were still pending in the Maharashtra Circle post offices. The Department of Posts intimated that they would consider delegating authority of revision to sub-post offices. In case of Patiala Circle, date of birth of spouse is not indicated in the revised PPOs. In respect of the comments of other Pensioners Associations, they were requested to give specific case wherein revised authority has not been issued.

(Action: Department of Posts)

c) The Ministry of Railways informed that only 5000 cases are pending where no records are available and revised PPOs could not be issued. However, the Pensioners Association informed that in Firozpur, Ambala and Delhi revised PPOs in some cases have not been issued. Ministry of Railways was therefore asked to reconfirm their figures of revised PPOs.

(Action: Ministry of Railways)

d) Department of Telecommunications informed that as on date 867 cases are pending and out of which 665 cases pertain to BSNL. Necessary action to revise these are being taken.

(Action : Department of Telecom)Page 3 of 8

e) D/o Ex-Servicemen Welfare informed that revised PPOs have been issued in most of the cases. This was refuted by the Defence Pensioner Association. Pensioners Associations were requested to give the list of the pending cases to the Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare, which will take the matter with CGDA. However, CGDA was asked to also reconfirm their figures.

(Action: Ministry of Defence)