| Sl. No. |
Issues raised in the 25th SCOVA meeting |
Gist of Decision taken in the 25th SCOVA meeting |
Follow up Action |
| 1. |
i) Status of issue – of revised PPOs to Pre-2006 pensioners. |
(a) CPAO informed that as on date approximately 38,000 cases were pending for revision. Out of these 27,000 cases belong to Pre-1990 retirees. Despite several efforts, no further information was coming forth in respect of the pre- 1990 PPOs. CPAO informed that 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
Status of revised PPOs to pre-2006 as on 07.01.2015 is as under:
| Mins/ Deptts |
Total cases |
Revised authority issued by Deptt |
PPOs yet to be revised |
| Civil Mins /Deptts |
4,31,167 |
3,99,396 |
31,771 |
Revised PPOs in physical form have been issued by various Ministries/Departments and subsequently authority letters have been issued by CPAO to banks. Difficulties are being faced to revise the remaining cases, by various Ministries/Departments since service records or mandatory information like pay scales, last pay drawn, qualifying service etc of the pensioners are not available. CPAO is however, providing all possible assistance to facilitate PAOs so that remaining cases could also be finalised by respective Ministries/Departments. |
| (b) Ministry of Railways informed that as on date approximately 26,690 cases were pending which was very good progress when compared with the pendency at the time of the previous SCOVA meeting.
It was stated by one Pensioners’ Association that PPO signing powers should be with lower officers and not centralized as a part of systemic correction.
|
Ministry of Railways
The status of revision of PPOs as on16.01.2015 is as under:
| Total Cases |
Revised authority issued by Deptt |
PPOs yet to be revised |
| 9,48,260 |
9,48,260 |
Nil |
As regards delegation PPO signing authority to field units is concerned, it is stated that a centralised application has been developed on Railways for all pension related activities. This envisages online issue and submission of e-PPO to the banks, the matter is under examination in consultation with the Banks. There will be no physical scenario and thus no attendant delays will
be involved. Hence no change in exist system is considered desirable for at present.
|
| (c) Improvement indicated by Department of Posts was quite significant. However, some of the pensioners association stated that large number of pensioners in the State of Maharashtra, West Bengal and in Madhya Pradesh circle have till date not received the revised PPOs copies. On detailed discussion, it emerged that though pension had been revised hard copies of corrigendum PPOs have not been issued to pensioners. Department of Posts will further investigate the matter and ensure that hard copies are made available to pensioners. |
Department of Posts
All circles of D/o Posts have already issued confirmatory certificates about the completion of revision of PPOs of pre-2006 pensioners. However, all the Postal Accounts Offices were requested to complete the revision of PPOs, if any, without delay vide this Department letter dated 30.09.2014 and reminder dated 28.10.2014.
Further a DO letter at the level of Dir(PAF) dtd 04.12.2014 was also issued on expedite the work.
The status of revision of PPOs as on 31.12.2014 is as under:
| Total Cases |
Revised authority issued by Deptt |
PPOs yet to be revised |
| 1,79,407 |
1,58,876 |
20,531 |
|
| (d) Department of Telecommunications informed that approximately 7637 PPOs were pending and the reasons for the pending PPOs was that the old records were not traceable. These pensioners could not also be contacted. |
D/o Telecommunications
Status of revised PPOs to pre-2006 as on
31.12.2014 is as under:
| Total Cases |
Revised authority issued by Deptt |
PPOs yet to be revised |
| 53,126 |
51,881 |
1245 |
|
| (e) Ministry of Defence intimated that a total of 85,000 cases are pending including Defence Civil pensioners. However, the pensioners associations did not agree with these figures and also stated that hard copies of PPOs were not being issued. It was also informed that the revised PPOs issued to the pensioners getting invalid pensions were showing wrong amount of pension as reckonable service is not relevant in these cases.
Secretary(P) stated that the pendency of revised PPOs was very high and requested all the Departments to launch a special drive involving field units so as to clear the pendency in 60 days time.
All the Departments will issue the revised PPOs by 31St Dec, 2014 after which the agenda item will be closed.
(Action :- CPAO, M/o
Railways, D/o Posts, D/o
Telecomm. And M/o
Defence) |
Ministry of Defence
Corrigendum PPOs in respect of 16.71 lakh pre-2006 Defence/Civilian pensioners has been achieved under project Sangam. No pendency rests at this end.
| Total Cases |
Revised authority issued by Deptt |
PPOs yet to be revised |
| 16.71 lacs |
16.71 lacs |
Nil |
|
(ii) Pension
Adalat |
On the issue of pension adalat in North East, the Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare intimated that a pension adalat in Shillong will be held on 17th and 18th Oct, 2014. The associations requested that the minutes of the adalats should be issued
by all the Departments.
One pensioner association
recommended that Lok
Adalats should not be confined
to cities but should also be
held in the hinterland
especially in places like
Ladakh, upper reaches of
Himachal, Uttrakhand and
areas from where the other
ranks abound. Suggestion was
accepted by CGDA
representative.
One of the Pensioners’
Associations pointed out that
Pension Adalat is not being
held in the IncomeTax,
Central Excise and Survey of
India Departments.
(Action:- D/o Revenue,
Central Excise, Survey of
India, DoPPW) |
DoPPW
In this regard, an OM dtd 04.12.2014 was issued to We Revenue, D/o Central Excise and O/o of Surveyor General of India to take necessary action in the matter and intimate the same to DoPPW. A reminder dtd 28.01.2015 has also been issued in this regard.
Survey of India
Till 28.01.2015, a total of 21 Pension adalats have been held in various stations Survey of India. |
| 2. |
Broad Banding of
Disability Element
for Pre-1996 cases. |
The Department of Ex-
Servicemen Welfare informed
that the proposal had been
approved by Department of
Expenditure and the orders in
this regard will be issued by
the Department of Ex-
servicemen Welfare shortly.
One pensioners association
informed the Chair that the
approved file had been with
the Dept of ESW for over
three weeks with no forward
movement. The Department
of ESW clarified that the file
had been put up to the
Minister and orders would be
issued by the ensuing week.
(Action : D/o Ex-
servicemen Welfare)
|
D/o Ex-servicemen Welfare
In this regard, Government had issued
letter dated 15.09.2014.
|
| 3. |
Health Insurance
Scheme for
pensioners
including those
residing at non-CGHS areas. |
Planning Commission has suggested
re-casting of
the EFC Memo. The Ministry
of Health intimated that the
Ministry of Health will submit
the revised EFC Memo within
two weeks.
(Action: Ministry of Health
Family Welfare, DoPPW) |
Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare
The EFC Memo is being re-cast. |
|
Dedicated day for
pensioners.
|
Most of the
Departments had fixed days
for meeting the pensioners
barring Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare, Ministry
of Railways and Department
of Financial Service.
Secretary (P) requested
these Departments to fix
days to meet the pensioners.
Department of ESW should
put in place an institutional
mechanism for regular
interaction with pensioners.
Some pensioner associations
brought out the fact that the
veterans could not travel to
Allahabad PCGDA every time
they needed redressal. The
Department of ESW should
reintroduce the quarterly
meetings with its ESM’s as
before to resolve issues and
improve matters.
(Action: D/o Financial
Services, D/o Ex-
servicemen Welfare and
Ministry of Railways)
|
D/o Financial Services
All Public Sector Banks have been
advised to take note of resolving the
grievances in disbursement of pension/family
pension to sensitise their operating staff in
this regard.
Further all Branch Managers are making
themselves available for meeting customers,
including Pensioners, any time during
business hours on all working days. Hence
there may be no need to fix specific time
slots.
D/o Ex-servicemen Welfare
A Standing Committee has been set up
under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Raksha
Rajya Mantri to look into the various issues
relating to welfare of Ex-servicemen. The
Committee will meet once every quarter.
The recognised Ex-Servicemen Associations
are members of the Standing Committee.
Ministry of Railways
Instructions to the all Railways Units
are issued from time to time to conduct
Pension Adalats so that the grievances of the
pensioners may be dealt with.
Further, all Railway Units were also
requested to take necessary action so that
pensioners and pensioners associations may
feel free to meet the officers for redressal of
their grievances.
|
| 5. |
Special Family
Pension for the
Widows of Disabled
War Veterans.
|
The Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare informed
that it had not been possible
to agree to the proposal. After
discussion it was understood
that the proposal considered
by the Department of ESW
should have been only for
special family pension to the
war casualties, not all disabled
veterans. This number, it was
stated, was not more than
3,000. Therefore, It was
decided the Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare will
reconsider the proposal.
(Action: – M/o Defence,
D/o of Ex-senlicemen
Welfare)
|
D/o Ex-servicemen Welfare
The matter is under examination.
|
| 6. |
(a)
The Orders of
Ministry of Health
reiterating that all
the pensioners are at
liberty to opt
themselves with any
of the nearest CGHS
hospital/ dispensary
may be widely
circulated. Arbitrary
orders dated
01/08/1996 and
01/09/1996 issued
by M/o of Health and
Director of CGHS
may be withdrawn
and the benefit of
CGHS facilities be
allowed to the
pensioners of D/o
Posts and D/o Telecom.
(b) Medical facilities
for existing P&T
pensioners.
|
Ministry of Health informed
that the matter was still sub-judice. It was suggested that
Ministry of Health may re-consider this issue to see that
there is no discrimination
among the
employees/pensioners from
the various Departments of
the Central Government.
(Action: Ministry of Health
Family Welfare)
|
M/o Health and Family Welfare
As per this Ministry’s OM No
11011/46/95-CGHS Desk.II/CGHS(P) dated
01.08.1996, Post and Telegraph pensioner
who were members of CGHS Scheme prior to
retirement were allowed to transfer the
CGHS cards from one CGHS covered city to
another. However, the P&T pensioners
were not participating in CGHS while the
service were not extended this facility. The
matter is sub-judice in the apex court. |
| 7. |
Anomaly in fixation
of pension to DoT employees
absorbed in BSNL,
who retired between 1.10.2000
and 31.7.2001. |
DoT informed that the BSNL is collecting the requisite information sought by DoPPW
from corporate offices of BSNL/MTNL. It was decided that the matter may be discussed
in a meeting
between DoPPW and DOT to find a solution to the issue.
(Action; D/o Telecom & D/o P&PW) |
D/o Telecom
DoPPW vide its I.D note dated 28-02-2014 sought some information from D/o
Telecomm. As the information was not available D/o Telecom, it was asked to BSNL Corporate Office/MTNL Corporate Office to furnish the concerned information.
So far, BSNL has not furnished the information and a reminder dated 19.01.2015 has been issued to BSNL in this regard.
DoPPW
In this regard, two meetings were held
with the officials of D/o Telecomm on
29.09.2014 and 30.12.2014. In both the
meetings, DOT was asked to furnish the
requisite details. Thereafter, a number of
reminders were also sent to We Telecom in
this regard. Reply from We Telecom is
awaited.
|
| 8. |
Merger of 78.2% IDA with basic
pension benefit to
the absorbed BSNL Pensioners. |
DoP&PW has already conveyed it’s ‘no objection’ to
the proposal. Department of Expenditure intimated that they will send their
comments
to DOT Within a week.
(Action: D/o Telecom
&
D/o Expenditure |
Department of Expenditure
A proposal from D/o Telecom was examined in D/o Expenditure and comments/Views of
D/o Expenditure has been conveyed to DOT
Vide OM dtd 15.10.2014.
D/o Telecommunication
DoPPW has conveyed it’s no objection and
Department of Expenditure has also agreed
to the proposal subject to the approval of
Cabinet. Accordingly, Cabinet Note has been
prepared and put up for approval of MOC &
IT.
|
| 9. |
Extension of
benefit of
upgraded Grade Pay to pre-2006
retirees of S-12 grade. |
The matter is sub-judice.
(Action: D/o Expenditure & DoPPW) |
D/o Expenditure
Certain grievances on the same issue have been received from Shri K. Srinivasan. The issue is being considered by
D/o Expenditure. However, since the matter is sub-judice,
DOPPW has been requested to provide the
details of the cases on this issue, their
present status and the submission by DOPPW so that the issue may be re-examined
comprehensively.
DoPPW
In the last SCOVA meeting it was
informed that the Karnataka high Court in his
order dtd. 06.03.2014 directed that the order
dtd. 08.03.2013 of CAT in OA No 2321/2…
may be complied with in the event of
SLP No 36148-50/2013 were to be dismissed
and if the SLP were not to be allowed, the
order dtd 08.03.2013 in CA No 253/12..
CAT, Bangalore Bench reproduced
…
operative part of the order dtd 01.11.201..
CAT. Pr. Bench in CA No 655/2010
directed the respondents to re-fix
the
pension. Apparently, the direction was
…
re-fixation of pension in terms of order
…
01.11.2011 of CAT , Pr. Branch and this
seems to be no direction to allow the benefit
of Grade Pay of Rs 4600/-. The SLP
36148-50/2013 is pending for hearing
…
17.02.2015.
The D/o Expenditure has sought to
….
examine the issue again. The relevant file
..
the issue has been forwarded to
D/o Expenditure on 22.01.2015 |
| 10.
|
Extension of
benefit of OM dt.
28.1.2013 w.e.f
1.1.2006 instead of
24.9.2012
|
The matter is sub-judice.
Secretary(P) mentioned that
as and when the Hon’ble
Supreme Court decides the
pending SLP, the orders of
Hon’ble Supreme Court will be
implemented.
(Action : DoPPW) |
DOPPW
Instructions have been issued
to
concerned Ministries/Departments
to
implement the order
15.05.2014/ 1.11.2011 of CAT, Pr. Bench
New Delhi in respect of petitioners in OA
No.
655/2010 only.
Law Ministry had advised to await
outcome of SLP No 36148-50/2013 before deciding in respect of other pre-2006
pensioner. The SLP no 36148-50/2013
pending for hearing on 17.02.2015.
|
| 11. |
Sl no (25.1) :-
Stepping up of Disability Element on the basis of Fitment Tables. |
In respect of the civil
pensioners the proposal has
been agreed to by the Department of Expenditure and the orders will be issued shortly by the Department of
Pension. In respect of ex-
servicemen the file is under
consideration of Ministry of
Defence (Fin). It was
requested that the matter be
expedited.
(Action: D/o Ex-servicemen Welfare,
DoPPW)
|
D/o Ex-Servicemen Welfare
The proposal has been concurred by
Department of Expenditure. Government
orders are under process. CGDA has been
requested to expedite the matter.
DoPPW
In respect of Civil disability
pensioners/family pensioners covered under
the provisions of CCS(EOP) Rules, the proposal has been examined and orders have
been issued vide DoPPW’s OM No
45/03/2008-P&PW(F) dated 20.11.2014 |
| 12. |
Sl.no (25.2)
Income Certificate to be produced by the Family
Pensioner. |
Ministry of Railways were in
general following these
instructions except in a few zones like Southern Railway, particularly Divisions like Trichy, Madurai etc. Railways
were requested to reiterate
the existing instructions to
accept self attestation for
strict compliance.
(Action: M/o Railways)
|
Ministry of Railways
Instruction has been issued to all the
Zonal Railways vide Board’s Letter No.
F(E)III/ 2005/PN1/16 dtd 29.08.2014
reiterating the
instructions already issued
vide board’s
letter dated 17.02.2012 for
compliance.
|
| 13. |
SI no (25.3) and (25.4)
Extension Counter
of CGHS Wellness Centre Jammu at Srinagar and
Upgradation of
facilities at CGHS
Jammu including
Construction of
CGHS Hospital on the plot of land
allotted by J&K
Govt. at Jammu.
|
Ministry of Health informed that due to resource and man
power constraints, it is not
possible to open a CGHS Wellness Centre at Srinagar.
It was decided that the issue of increasing the number of CGHS dispensary will be taken up along with other issues on
Wellness Centre CGHS in a special meeting of JS(Pension) with AS&DG, CGHS.
(Action: Ministry of Health &FW, DoPPW) |
Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare
CGHS has reiterated its earlier stand that due
to resource and manpower constraints, it is
not possible to open a CGHS Wellness Centre
at Srinagar.
|
| 14. |
SI no (25.5):-
Delay in family pension to next eligible family member in case of death of
widow. |
It was noted in the
meeting that procedure for
payment of family pension to spouses has been streamlined resulting in smooth transition of payment to spouses. It was not possible to simplify
the provision in respect of
other categories. The SCOVA
member who raised the issue
was requested to give details
of the 3 cases quoted where
hardships were being faced in
payment of family pension for
further examination.
(Action: DoPPW) |
DoPPW
There is no case pending in DoPPW. Specific case as and When receive
from SCOVA member, will be taken up accordingly. |
| 15. |
(25.6)
Extension of CGHS
facilities to retired
BSNL employees
Issue of follow up
order by the
Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare
fixation of rates
of contribution
ward entitlement
by DoT. |
Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare intimated that the
orders extending the CGHS
facilities to retired BSNL
employees drawing pension
from the Government were
already issued on 9/1/2014.
Pensioner Association
requested that Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare
may circulate the OM dtd
09.01.2014 to all concerned,
especially to the CGHS, and
supply a copy of the OM to the
Pensioners’ Associations under
SCOVA. The item may be
closed.
|
M/o Health and Family Welfare
Orders have been issued vide letter
Z.15025/36/2006-CGHS-III(Part-I)
9.01.2014
|
Pensioners’ Association
mentioned that in CGHS,
monthly contribution is fixed
on the basis of Grade Pay and
ward entitlement on the basis
of Pay in pay band. As there is
no element of “Grade Pay”
and “Pay in Pay band” in IDA
pay scales the Department of Telecom / Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare should
evolve criteria in respect of
BSNL retirees regarding
monthly contribution and ward
entitlement.
(Action : M/o Health and
Family Welfare,
Department of Telecom)
|
D/o Telecomm
The matter is being taken up with Ministry
Health and Family welfare
|
COMMENTS