Program will help find out correct pension amount and prevent wrong disbursement
Program will help find out correct pension amount and prevent wrong disbursementu00a0
In what will be a boon for lakhs of retired soldiers all over the state, authorities have developed and implemented a new software, Suvigya, which will help them know their correct pension amounts.
Servicemen all over the country are having a hard time getting correct pension amounts, as nationalised banks make mistakes because of their ignorance about military ranks and hierarchy. Pension amounts differ depending on rank and years of service, which banks often do not follow.u00a0
Also called as the Pension Inquiry System (PIS), it was developed in December 2010 by the Principal Controller of Pension Accounts (PCDA), Allahabad, and was implemented in all the District Sainik Welfare offices in the state recently.
The pension amount for each type of group (job classification) in each of the wings is different. "The pension for a Subhedar in the combat division and for one in a clerical or engineering corps is different.
These categories for the non-officer cadre are grouped alphabetically in 'A', 'B' and so forth. So complex is the pension provisions for each group and rank that banks often do not understand the difference.
There are thousands of cases of ex-servicemen in the country receiving incorrect pensions," said Group Captain SS Phatak (Retd) from the Indian Ex-Servicemen's League.
While there are about 20 lakh military retirees in the country, the state has around two lakh, making it the fourth highest in the country.
All an ex-serviceman has to do to operate Suvigya is walk into a district welfare office, key in the date of recruitment, last rank and groups (if applicable) and the computer screen will display the correct pension. This way they can notify the bank about their correct pension amount.
Major (retd) Milind Tungar, deputy director in the Department of ex-Servicemen's Welfare, said the software would mitigate the workload and solve pension cases. "I appeal to all servicemen to make the utmost use of the software. Retirees themselves are unaware if the pension they are getting is correct or not," he said.
