10, 969 original pension cases settled during last five years
Chizokho Vero
Kohima | September 5
Altogether, 10, 969 original pension cases have been settled in Nagaland over the last five years out of 15, 921 O/B, fresh cases received while 1958 cases were returned to the departments.
Kahoto J Yepthomi, IA&AS, Deputy Accountant General (A&E), Nagaland said this during a one day workshop on Pension Adalat here today at ATI’s Multi Purpose Hall under the aegis of Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (Pension Branch), Government of Nagaland.
Yepthomi said the purpose of Pension Adalat is to look into the grievances of pensioners so as to redress the same by taking on-the –spot decision thereby reducing the delays.
“It will also give an idea of the kind of problems/difficulties that are being faced by the pensioner and help in identifying for amendment, etc,” he said.
He said Pension Adalat should be conducted at the level of very senior officer including Personnel, Accounts, Finance and other department concerned.
While the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 came into force on 1st June, 1972, Yepthomi pointed out that Nagaland government does not have its own pension rules and is still following the Central pension rules by adoption and with necessary modifications from time to time.
However, any amendments of Central Pension Rules are not automatically admissible to the state government employees unless it is specifically adopted by the state government.
Pension papers should be complete not later than 6 months to retirement
Regarding preparation and completion of pension papers, he said every Head of the Department shall undertake the work of preparation of pension papers two years before the date on which a Government servant is due to retire on superannuation.
The Head of the Department shall complete all pension papers and shall retain a copy of pension papers for his record duly completed not later than six months of the date of retirement of the Government Servant and forward it to Accountant General Office in order to ensure that the payment of pension should, in all cases commence on the first of the month.
He also shared persistent problems faced by AG office as delay in submission of Pension papers after retirement saying “Pension papers of retired Govt. employees are received many months after the date of retirement causing delay in issuing of pension and other retirement authorities.”
Stating that another factor was submission of incomplete documents and wrong forms, he said in spite of several intimations and observations made to the State Departments/ Head of Departments, pension forms and other required documents are not submitted in complete shape, causing delay in finalizing pension cases.
Other areas, according to him, includes: wrong fixation of pay and recovery of excess pay drawn as well as incomplete entries in the service book.
“It is observed that in many cases service books are not maintained properly,” he said.
Also no yearly verification of service recorded in the Service Book, Pay fixation is recorded correctly and a lot of overwriting and use of correction fluid are found in the Service Book. The lists of family members are not recorded in the Service Book as and when it occurs.
On inclusion of ineligible kin, Yepthomi cited that there are many instances where retired Govt. employees include their grandchildren, nephews, nieces etc. as own children while submitting their pension papers to AG Office for family pension benefits.
Taliremba, OSD, finance department also spoke at the workshop. The function was chaired by Administrative Training Institute director, Asenla Kietzar.
