New Delhi: Around 60,000 Army veterans, including commander-rank officers, were furious after their pensions for the month of April were withheld due to lack of a Digital Life Certificate (DLC), a process that declares they are alive.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has now given a “one-time special exemption” to all affected veterans to submit their identity cards by May 25, and said that in case of 58,275 pensioners, there will be pending pension for the month of April. Will be submitted by the end of the day on 4th May 2022.
However, many veterans argue that the digital way of presenting is actually cumbersome.
Defense Ministry said in a Statement During processing of pension for the month of April, it was observed that “annual identities” of around 3.3 lakh pensioners were “not updated”.
A list was shared with all pension disbursing banks to share the updated identification data, if any, and consequently the identity status of over 2.65 lakh pensioners was updated on Sparsh till 25 April 2022, making these Successful processing of pension took place for all pensioners. “The statement said.
“However, the banks (the erstwhile pension disbursing agency) could not verify the identity for 58,275 pensioners nor did they get their identity directly on touch till the time of monthly closing. Therefore, these pensioners were not paid their April pension till 30 April 2022.
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What is touch?
First implemented Sparsh is an online integrated system designed by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) in July 2021 for automatic acceptance and disbursement of pension to veterans.
As part of the identification process, Sparsh is required to submit a Digital Life Certificate (DLC) to the system as a proof of life, a process that will be implemented by all pensioners to facilitate switchover from old in-person banking in November 2021. was to be done. system for digitization.
“The need for SPARSH has been felt to address the existing challenges in the pension sanction and disbursement process such as decentralized solutions existing in silos, manual intervention in processing, lack of centralized information to address pensioner queries, etc.” Principal Controller of Defense Accounts Website it is said.
“Sparsh will cover all the processes and functionalities required in the pension processing life cycle, i.e. initiation of disbursement through a single source of truth,” it adds.
However, this switchover is facing operational issues, resulting in errors and delays for several giants, a source familiar with the matter told ThePrint.
“Earlier, all you had to do was visit the bank to submit your personal details, such as your Aadhaar, and deposit your pension. After Sparsh came into existence, we received a message to verify the details but the year of birth was listed [by default] As of 1901 in the System. I was asked to correct it and send it back, but we do not have user privileges to make changes to the system,” said the source.
The source further said that he was among the veterans who did not receive any further communication from the PCDA, adding that more than 60 per cent of the veterans are likely to be in the same boat.
“We have now entered May, and it will start eating into our personal funds. Budget allocation is not an issue, it is a migration from banks to banks [centralised] PCDA. Think of the elderly living in rural areas,” the source told ThePrint, adding that this is the first time that veterans are facing such delays.
Writer, lawyer and former Indian Territorial Army officer Major Navdeep Singh agreed that many veterans of the Army have faced these delays because of this switchover of Sparsh.
“Those who are not tech-savvy will suffer the most. Though I have heard that helplines have been set up to deal with these initial issues,” Singh said.
‘worldly reason’
Earlier this week, several veterans of the Indian Army had reported a delay in receiving their pension for the month of April.
Major General Rajan Kochhar of Central Command and Col Honey Bakshi, former commanding officer of the Technical Support Division (TSD) set up after the 26/11 attacks, were among those who expressed these concerns on social media.
The bank transferred the pension over the weekend, but I have not received it yet, Col Bakshi said.
Major General Kochhar, who had similar complaints, said it is disturbing that something as “worldly” as the DLC is the reason for the delay, despite the fact that the certificate was deposited in the bank in November 2021. Was.
It is rather unfortunate that many veterans like me, almost thousands have not received their pension for 22nd April. Some of the reason it is considered as a digital life certificate is that it was deposited in banks on November 21. Government should take action. #pmoindia
— Major General Rajan Kochhar (@GenRajan) 2 May 2022
hi old man
It’s May 2, am I the only one who hasn’t got pension?#Touch
Banks transferred it on 29/30
— Col Honey Bakshi, VSM (@colhunnybakshi) 2 May 2022
Lt Gen Kamal Jit Singh, former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command expressed similar concerns with Lt Gen DS Hooda, former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Northern Command.
1- Could not log on to Sparsh site.
Haven’t seen my pension slip since September 2, the last one was from the bank.
Pension stopped without any warning on 3-Jeevan Pramaan issue. 3 got the first information.
2B Responsive and efficient please.
Like OFB and DPSUs, will we privatize?@Rajnath Singh https://t.co/NFSAYW93y8— Lt Gen Kamal Jeet Singh (Veteran) (@kayjay34350) 3 May 2022
Veterans complaining of pension stopped without explanation. For most, it is the only source of income. Is this how we say ‘Thank you for your service to the nation’? Demand @Rajnath Singh to intervene.
— Lt Gen DS Hooda (@LtGenHuoda) 3 May 2022
(Edited by Amritansh Arora)
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