Jalandhar: (Jatinder Rawat)- As part of digital initiative of Government of India, Ministry of Defence has recently implemented a System for Pension Administration (Raksha) (SPARSH) for disbursement of pension to all employees of Defence Ministry including serving personnel. The system has been implemented for pensioners with effect from September 2021. In order to generate awareness about the new Pension Disbursement System a team of officers from PCDA (P) led by Mr Sham Dev, IDAS, CDA Prayagraj conducted a lecture for the veterans and dealing staff of Vajra Corps at Vajra Multipurpose Hall, Jalandhar Cantt today. The event was presided over by Major General Manoj Kumar, General Officer Commanding, 91 Sub Area.
In order to have maximum outreach the event was also live telecasted to military stations of Vajra Corps at Ludhiana, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Beas and Kapurthala and was attended by veterans and service personnel at all locations. The event’s video link was also made available to veterans living outside the country to increase the reach and facilitate them to gain from the interaction.
The team of officers from PCDA (P) Prayagraj also took on various queries from veterans to address their concerns on the new system and facilitated re-dressal of grievances at site to generate confidence in the new system which is aimed to empower them for their pension monitoring. Addressing the gathering, Mr Sham Dev, IDAS assured the veterans and service personnel that the new pension disbursement system is designed to empower the pensioners by having direct access and control on pension account, reduce delays in pension related issues, bring in transparency and facilitate one to one communication between the pensioners and the pension disbursing agency for faster resolution of anomalies. The teething problems being faced are being ironed out and will be resolved shortly and the pensioners need to keep their faith in the new system which is solely designed for their benefit. He further informed the audience that as on date more than six lakh pensioners have already been migrated and the balance will be done in a phased manner and will be completed by year or early next year.
Addressing the gathering Major General Manoj Kumar, General Officer Commanding, 91 Sub Area assured the gathering that the new system is endorsed by the service Headquarters as it is a empowering tool for the pensioners to have a direct access to his pension account and connect with the pension disbursing office for early redressal of grievances. He also assured the veterans that the Ministry of Defence has put in place adequate infrastructure to assist the veterans/ veer naris who are not tech savy by establishing Pension Service Centres all across the country, which will provide all Pension Administration (Raksha) (SPARSH) related facilities free of cost to the pensioners. He thanked Mr Sham Dev, IDAS and his team for the educative discourse on Pension Administration (Raksha) (SPARSH) for the benefit of the defence pensioners.
