Standing Committee submits report on pensioner’s grievances

The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice (Chair: Mr. Sushil Kumar Modi) presented its report on ‘Pensioner’s Grievances - Impact of Pension Adalats and Centralised Pensioners Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPENGRAMS)’. As on March 31, 2020, there were 66.7 lakh central government pensioners (including family pensioners) in India.

Key observations and recommendations of the Committee include:

▪ CPENGRAMS: CPENGRAMS is a mechanism for speedy redressal and effective monitoring of pension-related grievances of pensioners. Pensioners can submit their grievances online through pensioner associations, or by post. The Committee noted that around 20% of such grievances are not disposed within the stipulated period of 60 days. The core grievance prone areas (which account for majority of grievances lodged on CPENGRAMS) include delay or incorrect sanction of pension, and non-payment of arrears of pension. The Committee recommended constituting social audit panels to streamline the grievance redressal mechanism. It also recommended roping in Quality Council of India and enabling the agencies involved in sanctioning, processing and disbursement of pension to streamline their systems to mitigate the volume of grievances received.

▪ Additional pension: The Committee noted that presently, pensioners are entitled to receive an additional quantum of pension equivalent to 20% of basic pension on attaining the age of 80 years, 30% on attaining 85 years, 40% on attaining 90 years, 50% on attaining 95 years, and 100% on crossing 100 years. It recommended extending this to provide an additional pension of 5% on attaining 65 years of age, 10% on reaching 70 years of age, 15% on reaching 75 years.

▪ Medical facilities: The Committee noted that the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) is limited to a few state capitals and large urban centres only. For pensioners who reside outside the CGHS areas, a fixed medical allowance of Rs 1,000 is granted per month for meeting expenditure on day-to-day medical expenses. The Committee recommended: (i) opening CGHS centres at district locations or designating functional government hospitals in district headquarters as CGHS centres, and (ii) enhancing the fixed medical allowance to Rs 3,000 per month for pensioners.