27 Pension Seva Kendras inaugurated in state; Move aimed at streamlining pension process, says CM

Guwahati: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday inaugurated the Pension Seva Kendra (PSK) of Kamrup (M) district at the office of the District Elementary Education Officer here and said that the idea is to streamline the pension-related procedures to ease the hardship faced by retired persons.

The PSK, along with 26 others in various districts, has been set up after the state government accorded approved on October 28, 2021 to setting up of Pension Seva Kendras by AMTRON in line with its commitment to improve the ease of living for citizens. Accordingly, AMTRON has set up PSKs in 27 districts to facilitate scanning and uploading of Service Books along with submission of pension proposal through the online Kritagyata Portal.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the state government decided to set up the PSKs to benefit the pensioners who dedicate a long period of their lives to the service of the people. He said that as the school teachers constitute the maximum numbers of pensioners, the decision was taken to open the PSKs at the office of the district offices of the Education Department. However, he said, the PSKs will also cater to the services of the pensioners of other departments as well.

Sarma said that the state government has authorized all district authorities, head of offices (HoDs) and competent authorities to start the processing of pension proposal within one year of retirement of an employee. The scanning and uploading of Service Book will be done by the PSK operators and they will forward the Service Book and Record to the HoDs functioning as the custodian of Service Book through the Kritagyata Portal. The HoDs, after proper compilation of the scanned Service Book and record, will forward it to the sanctioning authority, i.e., the Director of Pension and Accountant General to sanction the pension.

Terming the initiative as a gesture of gratitude to the retired employees by ensuring a hassle-free and transparent pension process, Sarma said that the PSKs will enable retirees to submit forms online in Kritagyata on getting an SMS from the HoDs. It will also help retirees to upload Digital Life Certificate through Jeevan Pramaan using registered device of Jeevan Pramaan, besides acting as a cyber cafe to help pensioners to download their Pension Payment Order (PPO) and other information.

The Chief Minister further said that scanning and uploading of service book in the Kritagyata portal will help the offices concerned to maintain digital records related to the Service Book. He informed that retirees can also come to PSKs and upload their details in the Kritagyata portal apart from verifying their service book uploaded by PSK operators.

Moreover, the Chief Minister said that to ensure better monitoring, the Kritagyata portal will be connected to HoDs and the CM's Dashboard. He said that the state government is working to do away with manual handling of files and in line with this the Janata Bhawan will be transformed into a paperless office from October 2. The Chief Minister also informed that efforts are on to increase the number of PSKs from 27 to 35 to cover all districts of the state.

MLA and AMTRON chairman Ramendra Narayan Kalita, MLA Atul Bora, SITA chairman Ramen Deka, Principal Secretary of Pension & Public Grievances Department Archana Verma and Deputy Commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha were also present at the programme, an official communiqué stated.

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