As one of the first major initiatives by the Department of Pensions, within the first 100 days of the second term of the Modi government, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today launched the first-ever Call Centre for Pensioners. Complementing the officers in the Department of Pension, Dr Jitendra Singh said, this is in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mantra to bring about Ease of Living, and expressed the hope that the new initiative will make life easy for the aging and elderly pensioners. During the first five years of the Modi government, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled, there were several out- of -the- box initiatives taken for the benefit of pensioners, whose number in today’s time is equal or even more than the serving employees. These, he said, included a “CPENGRAM” system along with Mobile App for registering the grievances from the Pensioners. The response was so enthusiastic that even in the current year, in less than three months from the 1st of April, more than 11,000 grievances have been received and the disposal rate was over 90%, he added. Dr Jitendra Singh also referred to the path – breaking “Digital Life Certificate” which the pensioner can provide from home as an evidence of his being alive, instead of standing in a queue to submit the Life Certificate. This facility, he informed, is being further extended this year to over 20 more cities across India. The Pension Department, in the last few years, has become vibrant, prompt and more accessible. In this context, he referred to the conduct of the first-ever All India Pension Adalat held in September 2018. The Chief Secretaries of different states have also been asked to conduct similar Pension Adalats in their respective States. Keeping in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on Digitalization, Dr Jitendra Singh referred to the “Bhavishya” software, which was indigenously developed and has emerged as a common platform for processing of pension cases by all the Ministries and Departments in Government of India. This “Bhavishya” experiment, he informed, has now also being extended to cover Central govt employees working under Union Territories and Delhi Police administration.
