Central government pensioner? Check guidelines for timely disposal of your grievances

The guidelines are for redressal of grievances specially for the priority target groups i.e. family pensioners and super-senior pensioners.

The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension has recently released guidelines for timely and qualitative disposal of Pensioners’ Grievances. The Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) has in place a single window interface for all Central Government pensioners to register their grievances pertaining to any of the Central Government Ministry/Department/Organisation.

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Such grievances are later forwarded online to the concerned Ministry/Department/ Organisation for redressal through the Centralized Pension Grievances Redress And Monitoring System (CPENGRAMS) Portal.

Though time and again specific guidelines/instructions have been issued to the Ministries, DoPPW has released the instructions/guidelines and revise the time limit for redressal of grievances specially for the priority target groups i.e. family pensioners and super-senior pensioners in order to promote good governance and to ensure that the pensioners /family pensioners get their rightful entitlements.

Guidelines for redressal of grievances

i. In accordance with the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, every office is responsible for pension sanction, revision and payment of retirement benefits to its employees. Therefore, every grievance related to pension and other retirement benefits shall be redressed by the concerned office from where the employee retired or served before his/her death.

ii. Every grievance shall be disposed of within the ambit of extant rules. In case of a grievance falling outside the ambit of rules, a speaking order shall be issued indicating the rule position.

iii. All Ministries/Departments/Organisations shall strictly adhere to the time limit of 45 days to resolve the pensioners’ grievances. If the grievance pertains to a family pensioner/super-senior pensioner (aged 80 years and above) the dead-line to resolve the grievance shall be 30 days.

iv. Every grievance shall be closed only after its final resolution. If a grievance pertains to subordinate/attached office, the case may be forwarded by the Ministry/ Department to the concerned office but it should not be closed until final action is taken.

The responsibility lies with the concerned Ministry/ Department to follow up the matter with subordinate/attached units for final resolution. Every Nodal Officer should undertake a weekly review of pending grievances in the portal.

v. The grievance shall not be closed for the want of any documents from the pensioner/family pensioner. The office may contact the concerned pensioner on the mobile number or email as available in the CPENGRAM Portal in order to ensure speedy and satisfactory disposal of grievances.

vi. Ministry/Department/Organization shall dispose of the grievances after indicating that it is ‘Accepted’ or ‘Rejected’ or ‘Partially Accepted.’ In case grievance is disposed of in favour of pensioner, the option ‘Accepted’ shall be indicated. In other cases, a speaking order shall be passed giving reasons for rejection/partial acceptance and also uploaded in the portal.

vii. Re-registered cases should be disposed of by Appellate Authorities nominated in every Ministry/Department/Organization for the purpose.

viii. Ministries/Departments/Organisations shall identify core grievance prone areas and streamline their systems to eliminate root cause of grievances. Cases delayed beyond the dead-line should be analysed and addressed promptly.