Merger Of 50% DA/DR

F. No. 42j2j2014-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: J.I'>Y January, 2014 OFFICE MEMORANDUM Subject: Action Taken Report (ATR) on the minutes of the 23rd meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA). Please find enclosed herewith a copy of Action Taken Report (ATR) on the decisions of the 23rd meeting of the Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) held on 20th September, 2013 in New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Hon'ble MOS(PP) for kind perusal. Enclosure: As above. ( Sujasha Choudhury) Deputy Secretary (P) Telefax: 24644637 To, 1. Director, NIC, 3rd floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan, New Delhi for placing this Office Memorandum on this Department's website www.pensionersportal.gov.in ~ Circulars --+ SCOVA. 2. Pensioners Associations under SCOVA : Standing Group (5 Associations) (i) Secretary, National Council (Staff Side) JCM, 13-C, Ferozshah Road, New Delhi - 110001. (ii) President, All India Retired Railwaymen's Federation, Block 303, Railway Colony High School, Chilkallguda, Secunderabad - 500025, Andhra Pradesh (iii) President, All India Federation of Pensioners Association, G-2, Soundarya, New No. 51, Old No. 22, Kavarai Street, Saidapet West, Chennai - 600015, Tamilnadu. (iv) Secretary General,Bharat Pensioners' Samaj, Post Box No. 3303, Jangpura P.O. New Delhi - 110 014. (v) Vice President & Honorary Secretary, Air Force Association, Air Force Station, Race Course Camp, New Delhi - 110 003. Rotating Group ( 10 Associations) (i) President,Disabled War Veterans (India), B6/6, DLF City, Phase I, Gurgaon, Haryana - 122002. (ii) President, Association of Retired Officers of IA&ID, H. No. 2154, Sector 38-C, Chandigarh. (iii) Secretary General, All India Central Government Pensioners Association, EP-233, Naya Bazar, Jalandhar City, Punjab. (iv) Secretary, Karnataka Posts and Telecommunications Pensioners Association (R), 1397, 23rd Main, Banashankari II Stage, Bengaluru. (v) President, Co-ordination Committee of Central Government Pensioners' Association, 68-B, K. G. Bhawan, Malanga Lane, Kolkata-12, West Bengal. (vi) General Secretary, All India Central Government Pensioners' Association, 355, Ganga Mandir, Cuttack, Orissa. (vii) General Secretary, Central Government Pensioners' Association, Kerala, "Pension Kendra", II Floor, Capital Towers, Patturaickal In., Thrissur - 680022, Kerala. (viii) General Secretary, Central Government Pensioners Welfare Association, Jammu Olympic Association Building, Parade, Jammu (J&K). (ix) Secretary General,AII India Organisation of Pensioners Kanpur, 120/469, Lajpat Nagar, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. (x) President, All India Central Government Pensioners' Association, 1785, Sadashivpeth, Phadkeshankul, Near Pune, Vidyarthi Griha, Pune - 411030 (Maharashtra) Ministry of Personnel. Public Grievances & Pensions (Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare) ACTION TAKEN REPORT ON THE DECISION OF THE 23rd MEETING OF STANDING COMMITTEE OF VOLUNTARY AGENCIES(SCOVA) HELD ON 20.09.2013. S.No 1. Issue raised in 23rd SCOVA meeting as per minutes SI. No 1 of ATRof para 5: Status of issue of revised PPOs to pre- 2006 pensioners. Gist of Decision taken in the 23rd SCOVA meeting a} CPAO informed that as on 08.08.2013, 71,334 cases (34,733 pre-1990 and 36,601 pre-2006), of Civil Ministries/Deptts, are pending for revision. Approximately, 82% work of Civil Ministries/ Departments have been completed. Efforts are brinh made to approach the pensioners through advertisements, however, as pension has already been revised by the banks, response from pensioners was not encouraging. To strengthen the monitoring at the level of the Secretary of the administrative Min/Deptt, this item has been made a part of the monthly D.O to the Cabinet Secretary. Target date:- 31st Dec,2013. b} Ministry of Railways informed that they have completed the revision of 5,87,035 out of 10,93,772 cases.. Hon'ble MOS (PP) desired that the Ministry of Railways should give advertisements in Page 1 of 7 Follow up Action D{oP&PW MOS(PP) took up the issue with the Defence Minister & Railway Minister vide DO letters dated 14.10.2013. CPAO The target date for completion of the work was 31.12.2013. CPAO has given information on the basis of e-scroll received from banks. The number of cases has increased for revision. Since more and more case or pre-1990 has been added to CPAO data base. The major reason of non-revision of these cases in nonavailability of records of pensioners in ministries/Departments, Banks and even with pensioners, Approximately, been completed Ministries/Departments. 83.55% work by the has Civil Minis/ Pre Deptts 1990 Pre PPOs 2006 yet to be revised Civil Mini 43,457 Deptts 27,935 71,392 1,50,373 cases have also been revised in terms of DoPPW order no 1/20/2011- P&PW(E) dated 28.01.2013 for enhancement of pension of Pre-2006 pensioner w.e.f 24.09.2012. Ministry of Railways. Target date was 31st Dec, 2013. Approximately 90% PPOs have been revised till 31.12.2013. Status of Corrigendum PPOs revised till 31st Dec,2013 is as under: S.No Issue raised in 23rd SCOVA meeting as per minutes Gist of Decision taken in the 23rd SCOVA meeting Follow up Action c) Department of Posts Department of Posts informed that the after reverification the number of pre-2006 pensioners have come down to 1,96,000 and now the DOP has completed 84.78% of the work. 29,855 cases are pending. The DOP are going through a transition from non digitisation to digitisation form, and the Department has already started ERP solution, by putting all the legacy data into ERPsolution. concerned regional languages. MOS(PP) will take up the issue with the Railway Minister, demiofficially Target date :31st Dec,2013. Target dater-an'" Nov, 2013. d) Department Telecommunication informed that as on date 53,000 cases remain to be revised. The main problem was that DOT has to depend on BSNL for the records. The Secretary of DOT will address all heads of circles of BSNL to expedite the cases by constituting a Coordination Committee at each CCA.. 31st December, 2013 has been kept as a target date for BSNL to provide all the documents relating to it. Target date March 2014. Page 2 of 7 Total PPOs PPOs PPOs yet to revised be revised 10.02 8.951akh 1.07 lakh lakh The remaining 1.07 lakh cases are very old cases and due to want of records their revision could not completed before 31.12.2013. Target Date was 30th Nov, 2013. 94.83% revision of Pre-2006:has been accomplished. Status of Corrigendum PPOs revised till 31st Dec,2013 is as under. PPOs PPOs yet to be revised Total PPOs revised 1,73,858 8,986 of % Telecommunications Necessary instructions have been issued by Secretary (T) to BSNL and CCA Offices to expedite settlement of pending pension cases. A coordination committee has also constituted at each of the circles. Fortnightly monitoring of pendency of Pre-2006 cases is being done at DOT(HQ) level. 29985 cases are pending as per report for fortnight ending 15.01.2014. S.No Issue raised in 23rd SCOVAmeeting as per minutes Gist of Decision taken in the 23rd SCOVA meeting Follow up Action e) 4.5 lakh cases CGDACM 10 Defence) (approx.) of Post-2006 pensioners have been Status of Corrigendum PPOsrevised till 31st computerised. Digital Dec,2013 _ records of 5.88 lakh pensioners have also been Total PPOs PPOs yet to created in respect of Pre- PPOs revised be 'revised 2006 cases under Project SANGAM. 181akh 10.51akh 7.5 lakh Digitisation of pension data will be completed by 31st March, 2014, the revision exercise for all cases is proposed to be completed by September, 2014. (Action: CPAO, Mlo Railways, 0/0 Posts, 0/0 Telecom, Mlo Defence & D/oP&PW) Some banks have yet to furnish their database. Intervention of Ministry of Defence/Deptt. Financial Services have also been sought for Pr.CDA(Pensions) Allahabad have also made a advertisement vide their Circular No. 114 for eliciting information for left out Defence Civilian pensioner/family pensioners. All out efforts are being made for issue of revised PPOs to pre-2006 retiree pensioners/family pensioners within the time frame stipulated by the Ministry. 0/0 Ex Servicemen Welfare By 31st March, 2014, 17.5 lakh Corr.PPOs would be ready in respect of armed forces pensioners. To simplify the pension sanction and issue of PPOs, a 0.0 reply has been sent to MoS(PP) from Raksha Mantri on 03.11.2013. A Committee headed by Secretary (ESW) is looking into the matter for developing an Integrated Pension Management System for armed forces pensioners. 2. iii) SI. No. 3 of MIC Health & FW ATR: (13) The Orders of Ministry of Health reiterating that all the pensioners are at liberty to opt themselves with any of the nearest CGHS hospital/ dispensary may be widely circulated. Arbitrary orders dated 01/08/1996 and 01/09/1996 issued by Ministry of Health and Director of CGHS may In respect of point 13 & 16(i) the representative of Ministry of Health & FW informed that the matter regarding withdrawal of OMs dated 01.08.1996 and 01.09.1996 (which provide that the P&T pensioners not partiCipating in CGHS while in service may not be extended this facility) is sub-judice. (Action: Mlo Health & FW) Page 3 of 7 As regards (13) and 16(i) : the matter is still sub-judice. S.No Issue raised in 23rd SCOVA meeting as per minutes Gist of Decision taken in Follow up Action the 23rd SCOVA meeting (Ui) S.No 6 of ATR Ministry of Health & FW D/oP&PW & MIC Health & FW Regarding additional informed that due to the dispensaries. financial and logistic constraints it is not possible to open more dispensaries. Ministry is however mooting a proposal to open CGHS dispensaries at all State Capital not yet covered by CGHS. MOS(PP) said that for opening of dispensary at Panchkula, the matter from his level will be taken up again. M/o Health & FW informed that with the merger of 19 P&T dispensaries with CGHS, the problem of nonavailability of hospilalisation facility has been mitigated to a large extent. be withdrawn and the benefit of CGHS facilities be allowed to the pensioners of Department of Post and Department of Telecom. 16(i) Medical facilities for existing P&T pensioners. Hon'ble MOS(PP) addressed a D.O letter dated 10.10.2013 to Hon'ble M/o Health & FW for opening a dispensary at Panchkula. Hon'ble M/o Health & FW has informed vide DO letter dtd 30.11.2013 that it would not be possible to agree to open a dispensary at Panchkula. Regarding empanelment of hospitals, the Ministry of Health & FW informed that in smaller cities, the empanelment of hospitals has been done only in those places where CGHS dispensaries are available. This is because the number of patients in such cities is sizeable. ~ CGHS empanels pvt. Hospitals only in the cities where it is in operation, as a matter of policy. On the question of computerisation of CGHS ~ Regarding Jammu, The process is in advanced stage Page 4of7 S.No Issue raised in 23rd SCOVA meeting as per minutes. Gist of Decision taken in the 23rd SCOVA meeting dispensary at Jammu, the Ministry of Health & FW informed that the matter is under process. (Action: M/o Health & FW) Follow up Action 3. vi) of Para 5 0/0 P&PW & M/o Health & FW SI. No 7 of ATR Nomination facility for reimbursement of expenses incurred under CGHS. In D/o P&PW letter dated 30.07.2013, Ministry of Health was informed that seeking Affidavits/NOC etc. on stamp paper from the legal heirs/family members may cause avoidable inconvenience to them. The feasibility of reimbursing the hospitalization expenses in respect of the deceased employee/pensioner to the nominee for the purpose of GPF, gratuity, CGEGIS, etc. could, therefore, be examined. M/o Health & FW was again requested to re-consider the matter. Ministry of Health &FW informed that in the light of the observations of D/oP&PW, the issue is being re-examined. ~ M/o of Health & FW have issued an OM no S-1l01l/12/2013-CGHS(P) dated 25.09.2013 providing the facility of Nomination for re-imbursement of medical expenses in the event of death of Principal CGHScard holder. 4. ix) SI. No 10 of 0/0 P&PW & % Telecomm. ATR Anomaly in fixation of pension to DoT employees absorbed in BSNL, who retired between 1.10.2000 and 31.7.2001. The representative of D/o Telecomm. informed that the matter has been re-examined by them and a fresh proposal will be sent to D/o P&PW' for consideration 30.09.2013. (Action : D/o Telecommunications & ot« P&PW) before Page5 of 7 A proposal was received from Department of Telecom on 19.11.2013. DoP&PW has sought some more information/clarifications on the proposal on 19.11.2013. D/o Telecomm. has sent the requisite information which is under examination in D/oP&PW. S.No Issue raised in 23rd SCOVAmeeting as per minutes Gist of Decision taken in the 23rd SCOVAmeeting Follow up Action 5. x) SI. No 11 of ATR Merger of 78.2% lOA with basic pension benefit to the absorbed BSNL Pensioners:- The representative of 0/0 P&PW & 0/0 Telecomm. Department of Telecommunications informed that the matter has been re-examined by them and a fresh proposal will be sent to % P&PW for consideration before 30.09.2013. (Action: 0/0 Telecom & 0/0 P&PW) A proposal was sent by % Telecom on 20.12.2013. D/oP&PW has communicated its 'No Objection' to the proposal subject to the approval of Deptt. Of Expenditure. 0/0 Telecomm. has referred the proposal to 0/0 Expenditure on 08.01.2014. Approval of 0/0 Expenditure is awaited by % Telecomm. 6. (23.2) Extension of benefit of upgraded Grade Pay to pre- 2006 retirees of 5-12 grade. Ministry of Finance has informed that the grade pay of Rs. 4600 is not the corresponding grade pay in respect of the pre-revised pay scale of Rs 6500- 10,500. This grade pay is the corresponding grade pay of the upgraded post in the pay sca le of 7,450- 11,500. The corresponding grade pay for pre-revised pay scale of 6,500-10,500 is Rs. 4200, since the benefit of upgraded pay scale is not to be given to the pre- 2006 pensioners, the pension of pre-2006 pensioners who retired in the pay scale of 6500- 10,500 cannot be fixed with reference to the minimum of fitment table with grade pay of Rs. 4600. Pensioners Associations informed that there are some CAT orders allowing benefit of grade pay of Rs. 4600 to the pre- 2006 pensioners who retired in the pay scale of 6,500-10,500. It was decided that since the matter is sub-judice, the final decision would be taken subsequent to court decisions. (Action: Department of Expenditure,D/o P&PW) Page 6 of 7 Action Awaited from % Expenditure S.No Issue raised hi 23rd SCOVAmeeting as per minutes Gist of Decision taken in the 23rd SCOVAmeeting Follow up Action 7. 8. (23.4) Broad Banding of Disability Element for Pre-1996 cases. (23.7) Extension of benefit of OM dt. 28.1.2013 w.e.f 1.1.2006 instead of 24.9.2012. The matter was processed and referred to MoD(Fin) for concurrence. But MoD (Fin) returned the matter back for knowing the financial implications involved. CGDA, expressed its difficult in furnishing the requisite information. MoD(Fin) was persuaded to process the matter without the financial implications. The case has been referred to M/o Finance by MoD(Fin) in March,2013. The DESW has been in constant touch with the D/o Expenditure to get the case finalized. Secretary (Pension) requested the Ministry of Finance to expedite the disposal of cases. ( Action: Mlo Finance, ot« Expenditure & DI0 Ex-Servicemen Welfare) It was stated that a SLP filed by the D/o P&PW has been dismissed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court on 29.07.2013. The Department was considering further course of action in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Law. (Action:D/o P&PW) Page7 of 7 Action Awaited from:- 1) 0/0 Expenditure 0/0 Ex Servicemen Welfare The case is being pursued vigorously with Department of Expenditure. A D.O letter has also been sent to Secretary (Exp) from Secretary(ESW) in Dec,2013. However, concurrence is awaited D/oP&PW D/oP&PW issued OM dtd. 28.1.2013 as per the decision of the Cabinet while considering pensionary matters of Defence personnel as proposed by MoD. Review petition against the order dtd. 29.7.2013 of Hon'ble Supreme Court was dismissed. Hence, a Curative Petition is also being filed in the Hon'ble Supreme Court An SLP filed against order dtd 29.4.2013 in Delhi High Court has been tagged with Civil Appeal of 2011 file by MoD. Next date of hearing is 4th Feb,2014.