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).
SCOVA Meeting
F. No. 42/39/2014-P&PW(G)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Department of Pension & Pensioners Welfare
3rd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhavan,
Khan Market, New Delhi - 110003
Date: 26th Feb,2015
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.
( Sujasha Choudhury)
Dy. Secretary (P)
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)
