Pension disbursal to be made hi-tech

The two-day Defence Pension Adalat held at the Siddhartha Auditorium came to a close here on Friday. Additional Controller General of Defence Accounts M.D. Paliath inaugurating the two-day 110 defence pension adalat said advances in technology would be used for centralising the disbursal of pensions to ex-servicemen.

Mr. Paliath said such an adalat was being held in Vijayawada for the first time and pensioners from all over the State have come here for their grievances redressed. About 200 grievances received from pensioners by post would be redressed first and grievances submitted in person would be registered to be taken up in due course.

Gargantuan task

He said disbursement of pensions to lakhs of ex servicemen living in every nook and corner of the country and even aboard (only Nepal) was a gargantuan task. This was being supervised by 61 Defence Pension Disbursing Offices (DPDOs) through 46,000 branches of 26 nationalised and four private banks. The disbursement of pensions for the ex-servicemen, often for several decades, was fraught with difficulties because the pensions were often revised through several Government Orders which were “coy and shy”. Keeping the official machinery and the network of bankers up to date with these GOs was very difficult, he said. Ironically, ex-servicemen, who were in their 30s were also called pensioners. They were paid pension often for several decades and then their kin were also paid pension. Mr. Paliath said the Controller of Defence Accounts (CDA) had prepared a computer module available on its website with which the ex-servicemen could calculate the amount that should be paid to them. A central disbursement system with electronic transfer of pension was being designed, Mr Paliath said. Brig (retd) C.S. Vidyasagar, director, Sainik Welfare (Hyderabad), Controller of Defence Accounts Chennai M. Anjeneyulu and CDA (Pensions) Ajay Mishra spoke. The officials said there was a need for opening two new DPDOs, one at Vijayawada and another in Tirupati to cater to the ex-servicemen in the State.