ACTION TAKEN REPORT ON THE MINUTES OF THE 30TH SCOVA MEETING AND NEW AGENDA ITEMS OF THE 31ST SCOVA MEETING

42/03/2019-P&PW (D)

Government of India

Ministry of Personnel, P.G and Pensions

Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare

3rd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan,

Khan Market, New Delhi-110003

Date: 03rd Sept, 2019

To

All the Pensioners Associations included in SCOVA
included vide Resolution dated 31.01.2018

Subject: Action Taken Report on the minutes of the 30th SCOVA meeting and New Agenda Items of the 31st SCOVA meeting -reg

Please find enclosed herewith Action Taken Report on the minutes of the 30th SCOVA meeting held on 23.03.2018 and a list of New Agenda Items of 31st SCOVA meeting for your kind perusal.

Encl: as above

Sd/-

(Charanjit Taneja)

Under Secretary to the Govt. of India

====================================================================

Action Taken Report on the Minutes of the 30th SCOVA meeting held on 23.03.2018

S. No	Issue	Gist of discussion held during the last SCOVA meeting	Action Taken Report
1.	Item No. 5(i) of the 30th SCOVA minutes  Revision of PPOs of Pre-2006 Air Force pensioners.	CGDA informed that out of total 1,39,504 Air Force Pensioners, 76,591 were identified as pre-2006 pensioners. Revised authority of 69,595 has been issued. 6996 cases are pending due to non-matching of records provided by PDAs. The Air Force Association informed that the claim of CGDA that there are only 1,39,504 Air Force Pensioners is incorrect. It was brought out by Secretary, Air Force Association that in March 2017, the Raksha Mantri while giving an answer to Lok Sabha Starred question had indicated the figure as 2,05,942. Further, in Feb, 2018, The JCDA(AF) has shown the figure as 2,60,895 Air Force Pensioners in an excel sheet marked as “CPPC wise, no. of pensioner- Airforce” and sent to Directorate of Air Veterans (DAV) Air HQ. As regards the number of pre-06 Air Force Pensioners for whom Corrigendum PPOs have not been issued, the number is close to 1,00,000 and not 6,996 as stated by CGDA CGDA was requested to reconcile the figures in consultation with Directorate of Air Veterans, Air HQ and issue revised authority and also take urgent action to identify the 6996 cases of pensioners CGDA was asked to fix a target of 3 months for completion of this activity. (Action: CGDA)	CGDA It is intimated that with the issue of MOD letter dated 17.10.2018 regarding revision of pension of pre-2016 pensioners/family pensioners in implementation of Govt. decision on recommendations of the 7th CPC on notional pay fixation method, Corrigendum PPOs containing updated entitlement are being issued to all pensioners and left over cases of pre- 2006 Air Force pensioners under Project Sangam will also be covered. There may be no relevance of issuance of Sangam PPOs of left over cases at this stage.
5.	Item no. 5(vii) of the 30th SCOVA minutes  Extension of benefits of upgraded Grade pay to pre- 2006 retirees of S-12 grade (Issue of grant of grade pay of Rs. 4600/- instead of Rs. 4200/-)	Dir(PP), DoPPW informed that a proposal for extending the benefit of Grade Pay of 4600/- for revision of pension to all pre-2006 pensioners who retired from pre-revised pay- scale of Rs. 6500-10,500/o was earlier referred to Department of Expenditure. However, the proposal was not agreed to by Deptt. of Expenditure. The matter was again referred to Department of Expenditure on 22.02.2018 and was requested to expedite their decision in the matter (Action: DoPPW)	DoPPW After the approval of Department of Expenditure, DoPPW has issued orders dated 04.01.2019 and 09.07.2019 in this regard.
8.	Item no. 5(x) of the 30th SCOVA minutes  Delay in commencement of family pension to spouse on death of pensioners.	DoPPW/CPAO instructions provide that family pension to widow should commence within one month from receipt of death certificate of deceased pensioner. CPAO informed that the family pension in 38% cases started within a period of one month only. In 47% case time taken was more than 6 months. CPAO issued instructions on 31.01.2018 for ensuring starting of family pension within the stipulated one month period. DFS was requested to take up the matter with the banks at highest level to make sure that families of deceased pensioners get family pension in time. Further CPAO was advised that representatives from DFS may also be invited in meetings with banks. (Action:- CPAO, DFS, CGDA and DoPPW)	CPAO CPAO reviewed/took up the delay in commencement of family pension with banks in meetings at various levels. Meetings with banks were held on 23.01.2019 and 24.01.2019 to review the status of delay in commencement of family pension to spouse. CGDA Necessary guidelines in the matter have been issued by PCDA(P), Allahabad vide Circular No. 203 dated 17.07.2018 in which PDAs have been advised to make sure that families of the deceased pensioners are paid family pension within one month and acknowledgement is invariably given by the PDAs to the family member on receipt of death certificate of the deceased pensioner and application for commencement of family pension. DFS The Public Sector Banks have informed that family pension is commenced within 15 days to 2 months on receipt of all required documents like death certificate of pensioner, life certificate of family pensioner.
14.	Item (30.1) of the 30th SCOVA minutes  Revision of PPOs of pre-2016 pensioners/family pensioners as per 7th CPC orders.	In the meeting, Ministries/Department gave the following status report regarding revision of PPOs of pre-2016 pensioners as per 7th CPC. Mins /Deptt Total no. of cases Revised authority issued CPAO 9.06 lakh 5,13,160 Posts 2,58,205 2,17,644 Telecom 95,659 90,572 Railways 1,38,7542 8,43,391 CGDA Defence Civilian 5,58,761 1,52,417 Ministry of Defence informed that monitoring of revision of cases is done at the highest level i.e Secretary (Def). CGDA is also monitoring these cases fortnightly. Concordance tables for service pensioners have been prepared and will be submitted to Ministry of Defence for approval. Some Defence Pensioners Associations raised point of following different guidelines by PCDA(P) Allahabad than the guidelines issued by CPAO. It was advised to CGDA to issue centralized guidelines so that the same guidelines are followed in their all units. Target date for all Ministries/Departments was fixed as 30.05.2018. Ministry of Defence/ CGDA to complete this task by 30.06.2018. (Action:- CPAO, Posts, Telecom, Railways, Ministry of Defence/CGDA)	Status report regarding revision of PPOs of pre-2016 pensioners as per 7th CPC, as on date is as under:- Mins /Deptt Total no. of cases Revised authority issued PPOs pending for revision CPAO 9.06 lakh 5,13,160 2.44 lakh Railways 1,38,7542 8,43,391 156934 CGDA Defence Civilian 4,95,541 1,52,417 41984 Posts 2,58,017 2,17,644 23862 Status report from Department of Telecom is awaited.
16.	Item no. (30.3) of the 30th SCOVA minutes Extension of benefit of modified parity/revision of pension by pay fixation method to pensioners drawing Compulsory retirement pension/Compassion ate Allowance (on dismissal/removal)	DOPPW informed that a proposal it his regard was under examination of Department of Expenditure. (Action:- DOPPW and Department of Expenditure)	Department of Expenditure Reply has already been sent to DoPPW vide DoE’s ID note dated 21.05.2018. DoPPW A fresh proposal has been referred to Department of Expenditure on 16.08.2019 for their consideration based on a decision taken in the recent JCM meeting.
18.	Item (30.7) of the 30th SCOVA minutes  Difference in Last Rank held and Rank for Pension in the case of pre-2006 military pensioners.	Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare informed that the pension of pre-2006 pensioners was fixed w.r.t the pay scale of the rank which was held by pensioner for a minimum of 10 months. However, the condition of 10 months service in the rank is not applicable in the case of post- 2006 retirees. It is in this background that different criteria has been fixed for fixing of rank pension in the case of pre and post-2006 pensioners. DoPPW clarified that in the case of civil pensioners for revision of pre- 2016 pensioners, orders have been issued for fixation of notional pay with respect of the last pay/pay scale of the pensioners, even if that pay was drawn for one day only. Pensioners associations were asked to send detailed references bringing out all issues to Department of Ex- servicemen Welfare. Department of Ex-service Welfare will examine the issue afresh and take an appropriate decision in this respect, in consultation with Department of Expenditure. (Action: Department of Ex- servicemen Welfare)	Ministry of Defence The matter has been resolved with Ministry of Defence letter dated 30.09.2016, wherein, it is provided that the consolidated revised pension/ordinary family pension of all pre-2006 Armed Forces pensioners/Family pensioners w.e.f 01.01.2006 shall not be less than 50% and 30% respectively of the minimum of the pay in the Pay band plus Grade Pay corresponding to the pre-revised scale from which the pensioner had retired/ discharged/ invalided out/ died including Military Service Pay and ‘X’ group pay, if any, without pro-rata reduction of pension even if they had rendered qualifying service of less than 33 years at the time of retirement.
29.	Item (30.8) of the 30th SCOVA minutes  Extension of benefit of Composite Hospitals to CAPF personnel.	Ministry of Home Affairs informed that at present, retiring CAPF and AR personnel can opt only one of the following three medical options:- (i) CGHS facility for both IPD and OPD treatment (ii) CGHS facility for IPD and FMA for OPD facility. (iii) CAPF Medical Cover from Composite Hospitals. MHA stated that they would consider the proposal of extending medical facility in composite hospitals to retired CAPF personnel covered under CGHS without charging any additional fee, provided the pensioners do not avail FMA facility. MHA was requested to examine and to take a decision in the matter at the earliest. (Action :- MHA)	Ministry of Home Affairs Directorate General (BSF) vide UO Note dated 02.08.2019 has informed that the issue was forwarded to all retired CAPF Associations listed with this HQ and with all DDOs down level to filed formation through mail on 03.05.2018 and 09.05.2018 respectively for their information and further necessary action.

31st Meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble MOS (PP) to be held on September 05,2019

Sl.no

New Agenda Items

(31.1)

Negligence by the Departments / Banks for disposals of grievances of Pensioners within reasonable time. It has been prescribed in CPENGRAMs that grievances shall be disposed of within 2 months by a reasoned reply. The application is transferred to the concerned department for action. Many a times, Ministries/ Departments forward the grievance to its subordinate/attached offices and mark it disposed without any finality. No follow-up action is taken by the administrative Ministry/Department for which the Pensioners suffer enormously. Due to this modus operandi of disposal of grievance, it is requested that there should be on effective intervention of DoPPW and periodical monitoring system may be developed. It will make portal effective and meaningful for grievance redressal. (Action: All Ministries/Departments)

(SOURCE : STAFFNEWS WEBSITE)