Retirement benefits should be provided in time
Bhopal: Chief Secretary Shri Anthony de Sa has directed all departments to act on campaign-level to extend pension benefits timely to retired government servants. For this, the Chief Secretary has given detailed directives to all departments, collectors, commissioners, Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries.
Chief Secretary Shri de Sa has also directed to provide pension benefits on priority to next of kin of government servants meeting with untimely death. The Chief Secretary has also sent 5 forms to all concerned with the letter through which departments will have to regularly inform about progress of pending pension and family pension cases. Directives have been given to hold district-level pension cases camp once a month. Finance Department has been directed to develop a software which can tell about the level at which concerning pension cases are pending.
The Chief Secretary has directed that Madhya Pradesh Civil Service (Pension) Rules 1976 clearly state that preparation of pension case should be started 24 months before retirement of a government servant. Pension cases should be sent to the sanctioning authority 6 months before retirement. The Chief Secretary directed all heads of departments and administrative departments to undertake monthly review of pending pension case and apprise the Additional Chief Secretary Finance about it. After undertaking review, the Additional Chief Secretary Finance will apprise the Chief Secretary about the review report. Quoting rules, it has been said in the directives that there is provision of provisional payment by head of the office to an employee in case disposal of pension/gratuity gets delayed. It has been informed in the directives that there is provision of provisional payment of family pension/gratuity by head of the office to next of the kin if an employee dies during government service.
Similarly, a government servant should be informed about issuance of pension/gratuity order 15 days before retirement. Objective of these rules is that no government servant has to face any difficulty in getting benefits after retirement. For this, a time-table should be chalked out, which should be strictly followed by office head and pension sanctioning authority.
In the circular, the Chief Secretary has directed that heads of departments should compile information about pending pension/family pension cases as on March 31, 2014 in 2 forms and send the same immediately to the Director, Pension, Provident Fund and Insurance. Directives have been given to send necessary information in a separate form to Director Pension and his subordinate staff. Time-limit has also been prescribed for disposal of pending cases. According to it, office head will compulsorily send by by June 30, 2014 pension cases pending as on March 31, 2014. Directives have been given that pension cases pending as on May 15, 2014 with divisional pension officers/district pension officers should be disposed of by June 30, 2014. Pension cases received from office heads will be disposed of by July 31, 2014. Directives have been given to start preparing pension cases by June 30 for the government servants slated to retire as on June 30, 2016. Directives have been given to issue orders regarding pension cases of PPO/GPO-related employees due to retire till December 31, 2014 by June 30, 2014 and those due to retire after July 31, 2015 should be issued 15 days before retirement. Directives have been given to generate lists of government servants 2 years ago by confirming their retirement date incorporated in the database being maintained by Directorate of Treasury and Accounts so that directorate/head of department/administrative department can monitor progress of pension cases’ preparation.
