Source: Hueiyen News Service / Newmai News Network
Kohima, November 12 2008:
NAGALAND PRINCIPAL Secretary, Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (P&AR), C.J.Ponraj has said that payment of pensionery benefits to retired employees later than the due date is a crime.
He said that pensionery benefits are a legitimate right of the retired employees.
Addressing the meeting of pension Nodal Officers of various departments in the Secretariat conference hall in Kohima, Ponraj said that it is the bounden duty of the government to provide retirement benefits in time.
Quoting 68 of the CCS (pension) Rules, 1972, the Principal Secretary said that delay in payment of pension is attributable to administrative lapses and there is a provision for fixing responsibility to the officers and staff dealing with such pension cases.
He therefore called upon the Nodal Officers to accord importance to the pension matters asserting that government is aiming to extend all pensionery benefits to the retired employees on the date of retirement from 2010 .
C.J.Ponraj said all that pending pension cases will be disposed off by 2010 as there will be less pension cases due to enhancement of retirement age from the existing 57 to 60 years.
He informed all Nodal Officers to submit the list of employees likely to retire in the next six months with all details (along with soft copy) to the P&AR Department.
Senior Deputy Accountant General, Nagaland and his subordinate officers who also attended the meeting had fruitful discussions with the Nodal Officers with an aim to expedite the finalization of pension cases.
After a good amount of deliberations on pension related matters and the problems faced by concerned departments, it was decided that Pension Adalat would be held on 15th of every month.
If 15th happens to be a holiday it will be held the next day.
To begin with, the meeting decided to hold the Pension Adalat in Police Department on 15th December 2008.In January the same will be conducted in School Education Department.
The meeting also decided to conduct training of officers and staff dealing with pension on 10th December 2008 at ATI.
The Principal Secretary informed all Directorates to nominate at least two staff for the training.