Minutes of the 23rd meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA)

Minutes of the 23 meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) held on 20.09.2013 under the Chairmanship of Honble Minister of State (PP) at Vigyan Bhawan Annexure, New Delhi

The list of participants is at Appendix-I

At the outset Joint Secretary (P) welcomed Hon’ble MOS(PP), representatives of Pensioners Associations and the participating officers of various Ministries/Departments. She mentioned that Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies was set up in 1986 and over the years, It has served very useful purpose. The SCOVA highlighted the issues of pensioners, facilitated policy decision and provided discussion forum, where various nodal Ministries can interact. She added that the Pensioners Associations also have done good work and they deserved appreciation for their contribution.

This Department itself has made sincere efforts towards simplification of rules and procedures for payment of pension and sanction of these payments. Streamlining the procedure has helped both the pensioners and the implementing agencies. The list of recent changes has been provided on the Department’s website. However, all these have been possible only because of the dynamic leadership provided by the Hon’ble Minister, who has directed that no stone should be left upturned for the benefit of the pensioners.

Welcoming the participants, Hon’ble MOS (PP) stated that as promised last time, the SCOVA meeting was being held for the second time in a year. The Minister appreciated the selfless service of the Pensioners Associations. On the basis of recommendation made by the Department related Parliamentary Committee, this Department is in the process of increasing the existing number of Pensioners Associations from 30 to 50.

The Department has launched a web-based ‘Pensioners Portal’, a Mission Mode Project under National e-Governance Plan of the Government. The portal CPENGRAMS (Centralized Pension Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) serves as a one stop information source for the pensioners of Government of India across the country. He further highlighted the significant recent initiatives taken by the Department in the best interest of pensioners and family pensioners.

Thereafter, the Action Taken Report (ATR) of 22 SCOVA meeting and Agenda items of 23’d SCOVA meeting were taken up for discussion.

Action Taken Report (ATR) on the points raised in the 23 meeting of SCOVA.

1) SLNo. 1 of ATR of para 5:

Status of issue of revised PPOs to pre-2006 pensioners.

While the target date for completion of this work for CPAO, Railways, Posts was 31 March, 2013, the status and further course of action was as follows:

Download : Minutes of the 23 meeting of Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA)