58,275 veterans to get pension as govt steps in
NEW DELHI: Over 58,000 former servicemen who did not receive their pension for April were set to have the retirement benefit credited into their bank accounts by Wednesday night, after the defence ministry swiftly intervened in the matter and granted them a “one-time special waiver” to complete their documentation to draw pension, a key requirement that many of the veterans were in the dark about.
The defence ministry announced its decision hours after HT reported that veterans, including several three-star officers, had not received their April pensions yet, and the government’s pension disbursing authority had not informed them about the reason for the delay.
“In order to avoid hardship to such pensioners, a one-time special waiver has been accorded to these 58,275 pensioners to get their identification done by May 25. The pension for April has now been processed and it is due to be credited by end of day on May 04,” the defence ministry said in a statement. The pensioners are now being informed about the pending annual identification (submission of life certificate) through SMS and email. Former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd) said, “We are grateful to the defence minister for the speedy action that will provide relief to over 58,000 defence pensioners. We hope the pension disbursing authority will also look at all outstanding issues so that the procedure is streamlined.”
Pensioners are required to complete annual identification in November every year to continue to draw the monthly pension. The affected veterans completed the mandatory identification process last year. However, they
were required to submit the life certificate again (by March 31, and now extended to May 25) after the government switched to a new online pension disbursing system called SPARSH, controlled by the Allahabad-based Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions), or PCDA-P, to ease different aspects of pensions.
Several veterans HT spoke to said that the pension disbursing authority did not inform them about the requirement to carry out the documentation again.
SPARSH, or System for Pension Administration (Raksha), involves crediting pensions directly into the accounts of former servicemen without relying on any external intermediary (banks). SPARSH has been disbursing monthly pension to over five lakh pensioners for almost a year. However, during the processing of pensions for April, it emerged that the annual identification of around 330,000 pensioners was not updated, officials said.
“A list was shared with all pension disbursing banks to share updated identification data, if any, and as a result, identification status of more than 2.65 lakh pensioners (265,000) was updated on SPARSH by April 25, leading to successful processing of pension for all these pensioners,” the defence ministry said.
It said banks (the previous pension disbursing agency) could not confirm the identification for 58,275 pensioners, nor was their identification received directly on SPARSH by the time of monthly closing, and hence, these pensioners were not paid their April pension.
The latest pension delay came on the back of a series of issues faced by defence pensioners after the government switched to SPARSH. The previous issues were also fixed swiftly after HT highlighted the problems faced by the veterans. In February, initial glitches in SPARSH resulted in hundreds of former servicemen not getting dearness relief along with their January pensions, and several women officers not being paid pension for almost a year till that month.
India has more than 3.3 million defence pensioners. About 500,000 of them have been moved to the new system and the migration will be complete by the year-end. The officers affected by the pension delay are the ones who retired after 2016 as pensioners are being moved to the new system in phases.
The ministry has asked veterans to visit their nearest common service centre (CSC) to compete the identification process -- they are required to generate a digital life certificate (or Jeevan Pramaan) using a software application and secure Aadhaar-based biometric authentication system.
Military affairs expert Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia (retd) welcomed the defence ministry’s intervention to resolve the pension issue but said the new pension system defied the fundamental principle of outsourcing certain services by the armed forces. “It is best to revert to the timetested legacy system that did not have any problems. The new system may be cost-efficient but it is not cost-effective,” Bhatia added.