CGDA - CENTRALISED PENSION DISBURSEMENT SYSTEM CONCEPT PAPER FOR ARMED FORCES PENSIONERS

Ministry of Defence disburses appx Rs. 51,000 crore every year as pension benefits to 24.16 lakh defence pensioners – both service personnel as well as defence civilians. While pension sanction is being done in a centralised way – by PCDA (Pension) Allahabad in r/o Army and defence civilians; by PCDA (Navy) in r/o Navy personnel and by JCDA (AF) Subroto Park, New Delhi in r/o Air Force personnel, pension disbursement is being carried out by a number of agencies who are working as PDAs (Pension Disbursing Agencies) – 28 Public Sector and 4 Pvt Sector Banks, 63 DPDOs, State Treasuries and Post Offices. Banks have the largest number of pensioners on their roll – appx 18.06 lakh pensioners or 75% of the total number of defence pensioners. And they disburse Rs. 3800 crores every month (or Rs. 45,600 crores per annum which is almost 90% of the total pension disbursement to defence pensioners) as pension to these pensioners. Instances have come to notice where different practices have been followed by banks or where different interpretation have been arrived at and implemented for one government order, resulting in complaints from pensioners. An analysis of grievances received at the Ministry or at CGDA office or at PCDA (Pension) office reveal that more than 95% of the complaints pertain to pensioners drawing their pension from the banks. The task of addressing these grievances and providing services to pensioners to their complete satisfaction is an arduous one. This, however, could be changed by adopting a new paradigm for pension disbursement.

2. This new paradigm is centralised disbursement of pension. This simply means disbursing pension from a central agency viz. Centralised Pension Disbursement Agency to all the pensioners. The Existing Pension Disbursement System. 

PDA - (CPPC) - Bank A/c

PDA  - (DPDO) -  Bank A/c - Cash Payment

PDA (Treasury) - Bank A/c- Cash Payment

3. The present system of pension disbursement is an opaque one in the sense that it does not easily provide details reg. no of pensioners, category wise distribution of pensioners, amount of pension disbursed in a month and govt's pension liability. Collation of the information from various sources is quite difficult and the output is not always accurate.

4. Further, in the existing system, there is a multiplicity of PDAs ‐ 29 Banks, 63 DPDOs and a large number (500+) of State Treasuries. As mentioned earlier, many a times PDAs tend to interpret Govt. Orders differently. This, in some PSA cases delays the implementation of the order itself and in some other cases the order gets to be implemented differently by different PDAs. In both cases, generally, pensioner is the sufferer. There are other issues/difficulties in the existing pension disbursement system:‐

I. With multiple PDAs, the system is not amendable to effective monitoring as well as grievance handling. It makes the task of all decision makers including the Ministry, a very difficult one.

II. There is a delay in booking the pension amount to Govt. account. This also makes it relatively difficult to know the exact pension liability.

III. Even at a given time, it becomes an arduous task to exactly find out the number of active defence pensioners (including categories‐wise) as the information is to be collated from a large no. of PDAs.

IV. Maximum pensioners are drawing pension from banks. It has been experienced that they (Banks) do not have dedicated staff to deal with pensioners' issues. Also, they are not well conversant with orders/issues peculiar to Defence pension..

The Proposed System

5. The proposed system of Centralised disbursement of pension is not only transparent but easy for information processing and retrieval (PPO & pension (Pension amt) documents).

PSA - CPDA - Pensioners - Bank A/c

6. Under the proposed system, after sanctioning pension and issuing Pension Payment Order, the pension sanctioning authority will forward the PPO and other details – including bank details – of the pensioner to the Centralised PDA on soft format through a secured channel. It could be on the CGDA intranet and for enhanced security could also be with digital signature. The CPDA will process the papers and will initiate first payment as well as subsequent monthly pension payments for credit to the pensioners’ bank accounts (as given by the PSA along with the PPO) through the NEFT/RTGS or the CMP (on‐line payment mechanism with SBI). Since the CPDA is making payment of pension – he can directly book the amount to the government account, avoiding any delay or suspense head booking. For the pensioners, there will be no change as they would receive pension in their bank account, as is the status presently. The proposed system only replaces the multitude of PDAs with a single PDA without affecting the pensioners’ interest and rather bringing about a focused delivery mechanism. There are a number of benefits of the proposed system –

i. Uniform interpretation and implementation of govt orders

ii. Instant booking of pension payment to govt accounts – giving authorities a true picture of the pension liability and payment.

iii. Better grievance monitoring system can be instituted with a single PDA. Easier for everybody.

iv. Centralised database will help in better exploitation of information and communication technology for the betterment of services to the pensioners.

v. There will be no change as far as pensioners are concerned. They will continue to receive their pension in their given bank accounts.

vi. No loss to the banks in terms of accounts maintenance as they will continue to be the final pension paying agency.

vii. Future scalability is possible and relatively simple. For example, a centralised call centre could provide solutions to the pensioners for their queries or complaints.

7. In addition to these benefits, the proposed system will also result into a large saving to the Ministry of Defence. Presently, MoD pays Rs. 60 per transaction to Banks; and with 12 regular payments and 4 DA payments in a year, MOD pays Rs 960 per pensioners per year. For 18.06 lakh Bank pensioners, this amounts to almost Rs. 180 Cr. every year. If all pensioners are brought under the centralised PDA system ‐ where CPDA will credit pension in pensioners Bank A/c through NEFT/RTGS ‐ saving of Rs. 180 Crore could be achieved.

Implementation Modalities

8. Phase I can cover all new pensioners – appx. 80,000 per year – coming into pension fold. This can be done from a particular date which can be decided after taking decision on centralised pension disbursement and creating necessary IT and Communication infrastructure.

9. In Phase II all DPDO pensioners can be covered. All original files may be shifted to the CPDA DPDO‐wise. Given that out of 63 DPDOs, 52 have been centralised under Project Ashraya (Pension disbursement system), this is likely to be smoother phase wherein shifting of files and their appropriate indexing will be the main activity / focus.

10. In Phase III existing bank pensioners can be covered depending upon the response of the banks. This would be the toughest phase both in terms of making banks agree to the new model and in database management Banks revenue loss will also be a big issue from their perspective. As such this phase will require perseverance and a different strategy (including for database management) which can be derived and decided later from the success of the first two phases.

11. An issue which may require a conscious decision would be whether the centralised disbursement should be from one location or multi‐location. It is considered that in a networked environment, location may not be an important factor from the view‐point of users. However, for the ease and adaptability with the existing pension set‐up, it is recommended to have three centres associated with the existing pension sanctioning authorities, viz. PCDA (P), Allahabad, PCDA (N), Mumbai and JCDA (AF), New Delhi. It is also recommended to have a centralised call centre, which can have access to the complete database of the three centres of CPDA. The call centre can be colocated with one of the three centres for the purpose of administrative convenience.

Role of DPDOs in the proposed centralised system

12. DPDOs are Pension Disbursement Agencies in the exiting set‐up. Each DPDO is a distinct PDA. Presently, 63 DPDOs – 51 in northern India and 12 in Southern India (Eastern central and Western India have no DPDOs) – are working as PDAs for 4.7 lakh pensioners.

13. If we divide the role of a DPDO in terms of (i) processing of monthly pension payments and (ii) identification exercise (which is not restricted to any specific month (e.g. November for bank pensioners) and continues for the whole year) then it can be stated that in the proposed CPDA paradigm, role of DPDOs will not be there for first part (i.e. payment processing). However, they can be effectively used for the second part ‐ identification of pensioners. This would mean that DPDOs would need to be remodelled as service centres for pensioners/ which will carry out their annual identification, accept change requests/applications on behalf of CPDA (for cases related to re‐marriage, re-employment, death, Bank account changes etc.) and can also act as grievance handling /settlement centre as they would be linked with the CPDA server and can have a higher protocol communication with the CPDA call centre. It is considered that in the proposed model ‐ one DPDO may only require one AO, one AAO (or two AAOs) and one MTS ‐ all proficient on the new system. Savings achieved in manpower (to be assessed) can be used for opening up a few more service centres in areas where pensioner concentration is relatively very high or in existing offices of DAD or even with the Zila Sainik Board Offices.

Infrastructure requirements

14. To start the work at the CPDA, it is assessed that manpower strength of one IDAS, One AO, two AAOs, 4 Adrs and 2 MTS would be sufficient and can even last for the first two phases with 2‐4 additional Adrs. It is assessed that this manpower can be spared from the existing resources of the organization of CDA (PD). Hardware requirement would include the following:‐

Two Blade Servers of latest specification 8 PCs, 8 Printers including one line printer

2 10 KV UPS

LAN -  Wan connectivity with 4 MBPS Bandwidth

15. Software requirements would include operating system, Application software, and Anti‐virus. While OS and anti‐virus can be bought off the shelf, Ashraya can be used as application software with modifications amenable to centralised processing as well as call centre type information retrieval. In the medium term, however, there will be an unavoidable requirement of a professionally designed & developed integrated system and action for the same would need to be taken.

16. Other office equipment will include furniture, phones (including highend communication system for call centre purposes), photo‐copiers, Genset etc.

17. Similar hardware requirements would be there for setting up the call centre. While call centre manpower can be outsourced, monitoring can be effected by the CPDA officers, as call centre is proposed to be established colocated with the CPDA.

Costing

18. It is estimated that total fixed cost for establishing the CPDA will be in the range of Rs. 80 – 100 lakh. This will include Computer Hardware, Office Equipment, Communication system, LAN and WAN connectivity (as detailed out above) and other Misc expenses as per following details –

Servers Rs. 35 lakh

Printers Rs. 4 lakh

PCs Rs. 4 lakh

UPS Rs. 4 lakh

Gen Set Rs. 3 lakh

Photocopier Rs. 3 lakh

Furniture Rs. 10 lakh

Communication Rs. 15 lakh

Misc. Rs. 2 lakh

Total Rs. 80 lakh

Thus, for the establishment of three disbursement centres and one call centre, total one‐time cost is estimated to be in the range of Rs. 3 – 4 crores..

19. Running Cost excluding manpower cost but including maintenance of all hardware, communication expenses and WAN connectivity rentals (and hired manpower for call centre) is estimated to be Rs. 25‐30 lakh per year per centre or Rs. 1 to 1.5 crore for the four centres.

20. Manpower cost has not been estimated because it has been considered that the immediate requirement can be met by drawing the required manpower either from the savings which may be achieved in the existing DPDOs or even from the ZO (PD) / CDA (PD). It is, however, estimated that cost will be involved – both for hardware as well as for manpower – if service centres are required to be opened at new locations. While the one‐time establishment cost is estimated to be in the range of Rs.. 15 lakh, running cost (including manpower cost for 1 AO+1 AAO+2 MTS, rental charges and other maintenance charges) could be appx Rs. 40 lakh per annum per service centre. For opening of say 50 new service/liaison centres, a one‐time expenditure of Rs. 7.5 crore would be required whereas total running cost would be Rs. 20 crore per annum.

Issues

21.The following issues are expected to emerge in the new set‐up :‐

i. From the feedback received from various quarters, the biggest issue that is likely to emerge in the new set‐up would be the lack of an agency which could provide the pensioners a forum for personal interaction/contact at their nearest place. In the exiting set‐up, DPDOs and bank branches provide this and associated services to their respective pensioners. In the proposed set‐up, as discussed above, DPDOs can continue to play this role for all pensioners in their areas. However for bank pensioners (particularly in areas where DPDOs are not operating), this issue will need resolution as this will have a bearing on other associated issues like identification at the time of first payment, annual identification, change requests, intimation of re‐employment & re‐marriage, death cases & life time arrears payment etc. To address these issues, different models can be considered:‐

I. For first payment, in r/o PBORs, respective PAOs may be authorised to identify the pensioners on the next day of their retirement (since the PBORs are attached with their respective Record Offices till the last day of their retirement). The PAO may log into the CPDA system and do the needful. System would need to provide this facility and necessary rights for the same. Jeevan Praman website can also be an option for this purpose.

II. Officers may also approach Defence Pensioners Liaison Centre for this purpose. Jeevan Praman website can also be an option for this purpose. (Since, original document in the proposed set‐up are to be with CPDA, it is presumed that it may not be possible to assign this responsibility to the pensioners bank branch.) Similar process may be followed for annual identification also, for which even periodical camps may be organised at some of the locations. Further, for inquiries as well as grievance redressal, establishment of a centralised call centre, as discussed in preceding Para, would be a vital and unavoidable requirement. The call centre can also appropriately guide the pensioners about many of their issues and about course of action they need to take regarding any particular activity.

iii. Processing of 25 Lakh pension payments every month could be another challenging issue which would require robust infrastructure ‐ hardware, software, communication, and human ware.

22. It is perceived that this challenge is not insurmountable and could be overcome with a mix of planning, implementation and exploitation of Information & Communication Technologies and also adequate resources as discussed above.

Conclusion

23. The proposed system of Centralised Disbursement of Pension far outweighs the existing distributed system in terms of benefits to the Ministry, to the Pensioners and to the overall system per se. It is easier to implement, to monitor and to maintain. The system is positively susceptible to current grievance management and to future scalability. It would be possible for the Ministry to get information about total number of pensioners, category wise distribution, exact pension liability etc. from a single source. Finally, the system, if fully implemented, can result into a huge saving of Rs. 150 crore every year to the Ministry of Defence.

Colonel  N K Balakrishnan ( Retd ) ,

" SINHGARH",Pulleppady,
Chittoor Road,Kochi-682018

(Source : Via Gp e-mail)

Air Chief Marshal IH Latif is now passed away : World War II veteran took Air Force to greater heights

SIR,

YOU WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN 1980 FOR CLEARING EN-MASSE PROMOTIONS FOR ALL THOSE AIRMEN WHO HAD NO HOPE OF PROMOTIONS THOUGH OVERDUE. IT WAS TAGGED AS LATIF PROMOTIONS / JANATHA PROMOTIONS.

THIS SHOWS YOUR CONCERN FOR WELFARE OF THE MEN YOU COMMANDED.

RIP SIR.

SGT GV NARAYANA AIR VETERAN 

BLOGGER

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Hyderabad: Air Chief Marshal Idris Hasan Latif, PVSM, who passed away on Monday, was perhaps the only Air Force Officer associated with three different air forces and participated in several battles, including World War II. He was associated with the Royal Indian Air Force, Royal Air Force and Indian Air Force. He also trained pilots of the Indonesian Air Force. Latif is the only Muslim to have served as the head of any of the three wings of the Indian armed forces.

After retiring from IAF, Latif was appointed as governor of Maharashtra. He also served as Indian ambassador to France. Latif (94) was associated with a number of philanthropic activities. He had been ailing for some time.

P Anuradha Reddy, city historian and an authority on Indian aviation, described Latif as a great human being. “He was a patriot to the core. He had rare qualities. Latif preferred to stay with the Indian Air Force during partition,” she said. He was instrumental in modernising the Indian Air Force.

Latif was born on June 9, 1923, in Hyderabad. He was commissioned into air force on January 26, 1942, and retired from service as the chief of air staff on August 31, 1981. 

He became a Flight Lieutenant on August 15, 1948, and a Squadron Leader on August 15, 1949. He was promoted to Wg Cdr on 01 Oct 54, Acting Gp Capt on 10 Jun 59, Group Captain on 01 Oct 62, Acting Air Commodore on 15 Jan 64, Air Commodore on 01 Apr 67, Air Mshl and Commander-In-Chief on 27 Jun 74, and Air Chief Marshal on 01 Sep 78.

A product of Nizam’s College, Latif succeeded to the top post in the Indian Air Force on the retirement of Air Chief Marshal H Moolgavkar. Latif ’s father Hasan was the chief engineer in the Nizam’s Hyderabad state.

He had the honour of serving both the Royal Indian Air Force prior to Independence and the Indian Air Force after India became free. RAF is incidentally celebrating its 100th year of formation. He participated in World War II, Indo-Pak and Indo-China wars. He flew in India’s first Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 1950. 

In 1971, Latif received Param Vishist Seva Medal. 

He was instrumental in the procurement of Jaguar strike aircraft, MiG-23 and MiG-25 aircraft.

(Source : TOI)

Stop Clogging Courts with Frivolous Cases, SC tells Govt : Centre Pulled Up For Similar Pleas, Fined Rs. 1L Twice

New Delhi:“The couldn’t-care-less and insouciant attitude of the Union government with regard to litigation has gone a little too far,” the Supreme Court said and castigated the Centre for repeatedly filing appeals on identical questions of law despite being fined earlier for clogging the justice delivery system with frivolous cases.

Ticking off the Centre for snail-paced efforts to streamline its litigation policy, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta recently used the NDA government’s reformist slogan of “ease of doing business” to make a sharp point. “Under the garb of ease of doing business, judiciary is being asked to reform. The boot is really on the other leg,” the bench said. Pointing to the collateral damage the overcrowding of the judicial system caused other litigants, besides financial liabilities of the government, the court asked when the “Rip Van Winkleism” would end. “We hope that someday, some sense, if not better sense, will prevail on the Union of India with regard to the formulation of a realistic and meaningful national litigation policy and what it calls ‘ease of doing business’, which can, if faithfully implemented, benefit litigants across the country,” the bench said.

On December 8 last year, the SC had dismissed a batch of appeals filed by the Centre. Unmindful, the Centre filed another batch of petitions in March involving the very same question of law. It was dismissed with a cost of Rs 1 lakh on March 9. “Unfortunately, the Union government has learned no lesson,” the bench of Justices Lokur and Gupta said on April 24 when it came across a third set of appeals on the same issue with an identical question of law.

‘Govt has created huge financial liability by engaging 10 lawyers’

The bench said it had expected the Centre to take steps to withdraw all pending appeals from the SC registry once the question of law was settled by the December 8 order. “But obviously, the Union government has no such concern and did not withdraw appeals from the registry. The government must appreciate that by pursuing frivolous or infructuous cases, it is adding to the burden of this court and collaterally harming other litigants by delaying hearing in their cases through the sheer volume of numbers. If the Union government cares a little for the justice delivery system, it should display some concern for litigants, many of whom have to spend a small fortune in litigating in the Supreme Court,” it said and slapped an additional cost of Rs 1 lakh while dismissing the appeals.

Writing the judgment for the bench, Justice Lokur said, “To make matters worse, in this appeal, the Union government has engaged 10 lawyers, including an additional solicitor general and a senior advocate. In other words, the Union government has created a huge financial liability by engaging so many lawyers for an appeal whose fate can be easily imagined on the basis of existing orders of dismissal in similar cases. “Yet, the Union of India is increasing its liability and asking the taxpayers to bear an avoidable financial burden for the misadventure. Is any thought being given to this? The real question is: When will the Rip Van Winkleism stop and Union of India wake up to its duties and responsibilities to the justice delivery system?” Referring to the Centre’s 2010 “National Legal Mission” to reduce average pendency from 15 years to three years and the “National Litigation Policy”, the SC said, “None of the pious platitudes of the NLC have been followed, indicating not only the Union government’s lack of concern for the justice delivery system but scant regard for its own policy.

”The court said the 2010 policy was supposed to be reviewed and reformulated in 2015.

(Source - TOI)

Rs 1 lakh SC fine for plea on settled soldier disability case

File photo

Expressing displeasure over the Ministry of Defence (MoD) getting into unnecessary litigation, the Supreme Court has imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the government for filing an appeal in the case of a disabled soldier when similar appeals had already been dismissed earlier.

A former soldier, Naik Balbir Singh, who hails from Hoshiarpur district, had been granted relief by the Chandigarh Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal in 2016. The MoD, however, challenged the order.

“This is unnecessarily adding to the burden of the justice delivery systems for which the Union of India must take full responsibility,” a Division Bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta held recently.

It also asked the government to deposit the costs with the SC Legal Services Committee within four weeks for utilisation in juvenile justice issues. 

The case is expected to come up for hearing on April 23 for the government to file its compliance report.

A committee of experts on reduction of litigation had come down heavily upon the MoD and the services headquarters for generating unnecessary “ego-fuelled litigation” by perceiving litigants as persons “acting against the state”. 

The panel had noted that even SC decisions, sentiments expressed by the PM and Defence Minister and letters by A-G for reducing litigation had not had any effect.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE HON'BLE SUPREME COURT ORDER

(Source : Tribune)

APPLICABILITY OF STANDARD DEDUCTION OF Rs.40000/- FROM INCOME TAX TO PENSIONERS

(Source : Voice of Pensioners blog)

APPEAL/REQUEST TO ONE AND ALL TO DO THIS SMALL FAVOUR

DEAR ALL,

This is the season of fruits like Mango, Jamun, Jack fruit and a host of other fruits.

My request to all of u is kindly don't throw the seeds, wash them and keep it in a plastic pouch, preferably a good double wrapped paper bag or bin in your car. Whenever you go out and find barren land while  travelling, on a highway throw these seeds. 

They will germinate easily the coming monsoon. If with this act we can contribute even a single tree each to our world, our mission is successful. 

This is not just a random idea. 

It was initiated decades ago in areas like Satara and Ratnagiri in Maharastra. Many other districts have appealed to people to spread abundance in nature this way & many citizens  have joined this wonderful mission. 

It would be wonderful if all of us also join this and contribute back to our next generations world.

Will you please post this message in the known groups so that it gets circulated, thanks.

Thank you 🏻

(Source : Via Gp email from B B GHAI, Veteran)

Soldier drowns at LAC, Def Min cites ‘missing body’ to deny pension to kin : Family Is Still Waiting After 9 Years : Sad as to how logic itself is being stretched to illogical limits due to an all-pervasive pessimistic environment just to deny benefits to our men and women in uniform

Chandigarh: The mother of a dead soldier from Himachal Pradesh has approached the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) after the defence ministry told her that she would not get her son’s pension. This is because Rifleman Rinku Ram of Jammu & Kashmir Rifles had in November 2009 fallen into a raging river while patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and his body was never found. The defence accounts department told his mother Kamla Devi that pension would be released only after the body was found.

AFT’s Chandigarh bench, comprising Justice MS Chauhan (retd) and Lt Gen Munish Sibal (retd), has issued notice to the ministry and the accounts department on the mother’s plea. The counsel handling the case said that the demands of the accounts officers were unacceptable. “It is as if they would prefer that the family first jump into the river that flows into China and retrieve the body as proof to get the dues,” the counsel said.

The area where Ram was on patrolling duty almost a decade ago is considered one of the most treacherous terrains along the LAC. Ram’s death was declared a ‘battle casualty’ as deaths caused by drowning, avalanches and floods in operational areas are put in this category. The Army had also issued his death certificate.

Ram’s parents had been approaching authorities for ex-gratia benefits and pension since 2009. According to the plea in AFT, the office of the defence accounts (pensions) in Allahabad rejected their claim on the ground that the soldier couldn’t be treated as dead as his body hadn’t been found and was still considered “missing”. The plea adds that repeated requests from even serving Generals of the Army had no effect on the accountants who gave two reasons for not releasing the benefits. One, ordinary family pension would not be released to the mother because the father was a pensioner, and two, the liberalised family pension would not be released since the son was considered missing.

Even ex-gratia lump sum compensation given to families of all soldiers who have died in the course of performing their duty was not released. War veterans have been regularly complaining about the defence accounts department rejecting claims on “hyper-technical interpretation of rules” even after the benefits are sanctioned by executive authorities.

A committee of experts, formed by former defence minister Mahohar Parrikar had in 2015, strongly deprecated the attitude of the department and said, “We are at a loss to comprehend why negative energy and multiple reams of papers should be wasted on such issues concerning benefits of soldiers and deceased soldiers, which are anyway minor from the organizational point of view, when there are much more important financial matters worth pondering over. We find it difficult to digest as to how logic itself is being stretched to illogical limits due to an all-pervasive pessimistic environment just to deny benefits to our men and women in uniform.”

(Source : TOI)