Govt notifies new pension rules to check delays

In a step aimed at checking harassment of government employees in grant of pension, a head of office will now be responsible for any failure to ascertain non-qualifying service period and will undertake preparation of paper work one year before an employee is due to retire.

According to new pension rules notified by the government, retiring employees will not have to face any delay in determination of pension due to deficiency in application forms and authorities can go ahead with determining the amount of provisional pension and provisional retirement gratuity.

Till now, employees had to run from pillar to post in many cases to get their service record verified.

As per new rules, every head of office shall undertake the work of preparation of pension papers in Form 7 one year before the date on which a government servant is due to retire on superannuation, or on the date on which he proceeds on leave preparatory to retirement, whichever is earlier.

Earlier, the time period to undertake such work was two years.

Also, if any portion of service rendered by a government servant is not capable of being verified in the manner specified in rules, then the government servant shall be asked to file a written statement on plain paper within a month, stating that he had in fact rendered service for that period, and shall, at the foot of the statement, make and subscribe to a declaration as to the truth of that statement.

The head of office shall, after taking into consideration the facts in the written statement admit that portion of service as having been rendered for the purpose of calculating the pension of that government servant, it said.

The rules, notified on Friday, also fix responsibility on head of office for failure to verify service records of a retiring employees. The head—of—office is responsible for verifying service book of a government servant in a time bound manner.

“If at any time thereafter, it is found that the head of office and other concerned authorities had failed to communicate any non—qualifying period of service, the Secretary of the administrative ministry or department shall fix responsibility for such non—communication,” the new rules said.

There are many other provisions in the new rules to remove hurdles faced by a retiring employee or dependent family members (after the employee’s death) in processing of pension papers.

“If the person eligible for family pension is a minor or is suffering from any disorder or disability of mind or is mentally retarded, the guardian may submit a claim in Form 14 on behalf of such person,” the rules said.

There are about 50 lakh central government pensioners.

In cases where the pension papers have been returned to the head of office for eliciting further information before issuing pension payment order, the head of office shall rely upon such information as may be available in the official records, and without delay, determine the amount of provisional pension and the amount of provisional retirement gratuity, it said.

“If a government servant is found to have given any incorrect information wilfully, which makes him or her entitled to any benefits which he or she is not otherwise entitled to, it shall be construed as a grave misconduct,” the rules said.

“The head of office shall write to the Directorate of Estates at least one year before the anticipated date of retirement of the government servant who was or is in occupation of a government accommodation for issuing a ‘No demand certificate’ in respect of the period preceding eight months of the retirement of the allottee,” the rules notified by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said.

Earlier, the time period for writing to the Directorate of Estates was two years.

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