Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Sept 25: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Northeast, MoS in PMO and Minister In-Charge Personnel (DoPT & ARPG), Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today announced relaxation in rules for family pension with effect from the 1st of October, wherein the spouse or survivors of a Government servant, who dies within seven years of joining service, will also be eligible for family pension at enhanced rate of 50% of the last pay drawn, for a period of 10 years.
This abolishes the earlier condition in rules that the minimum period of service of a deceased employee should be at least seven years at the time of his death, in order to make his spouse or survivors eligible for family pension at enhanced rate.
Announcing the decision of the Government to amend Rule 54 of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, Dr Singh said, this decision shows the human angle of the Modi Government and reflects Prime Minister’s sensitivity towards citizens.
He said, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi is also approaching and this reform will be effective from 1st October on the eve of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary. He added that this will benefit the CAPFs also.
Dr Singh also launched the Centralised Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) reforms in Department of Posts, at a function organised by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, here today. He said that the Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has focussed on digitalisation in the functioning from the very beginning. He said that the priority of the Government is to provide transparent and citizen-centric governance to the people.
The Secretary (DARPG & Pensions) KV Eapen and Director General Posts, Meera Handa and senior officers were also present on the occasion.
Dr Singh said that the new version of CPGRAMS will lead to reduction in grievance disposal time. He also mentioned about the monthly “Pragati” (Pro Active Governance and Timely Implementation) review meetings where the Prime Minister himself reviews the status of public grievances. He mentioned about various other initiatives such as amendment in Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The Union Minister said that the telephonic calls are made by the senior officers of the Department to the complainants to take their feedback about their satisfaction level. He said that the decision of the Government to post young IAS officers as Assistant Secretaries in the Central Ministries/departments for a period of 3 months has proved to be beneficial for the young recruits to understand the functioning the Government in the very beginning of their careers.
Dr Singh also inaugurated CPGRAMS 7.0 Exhibition on the occasion. The exhibition also contained exhibits from Department of Posts and Quality Council of India (QCI). The Department of Posts had displayed information related to launch of various stamps from time to time and their brief significance.
The DARPG launched the CPGRAMS for receiving, redressing and monitoring of grievances from the public. The CPGRAMS provides the facility to lodge a grievance online from any geographical location. It enables the citizens to track online grievance being followed up with Departments concerned and also enables DARPG to monitor the grievance. The citizen can then access the system through www.pgportal.nic.in. The DARPG has issued several guidelines for redress of public grievances by Departments to ensure the system is accessible, simple, quick, fair and responsive.
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