Central  Government  has  issued  comprehensive  guidelines  after  reviewing    its    Pensioners’ grievance  redressal  mechanism  i.e.  Centralized  Pension  Grievances  Redress  and  Monitoring System  (CPENGRAMS)  to  make  it  more  sensitive,  accessible  and  meaningful  in  line  with  the vision of the Prime Minister.

The guidelines envisage expeditious and efficient redressal of the grievances, bearing a  testimony to the citizen-centric approach of the Government of India.

The  main  highlights  of  the  comprehensive  guidelines  for  handling  Central  government  Pensioners’ grievances are as follows:

1.     Ministries/Departments  should  strive  to  redress  the  Pensioners’  grievances  within  21  days.  In the cases, where redressal of   the grievances requires longer time, an  interim reply may  be furnished on the portal.

2.     The   grievance   shall   be   redressed   under   ‘whole   of   the   Government   approach’.   In   no   case, grievance shall be closed summarily by stating, ‘it does not pertain to this Office’.

3.     The  grievance shall  not  be closed  without  its conclusive  redressal  and the  Action Taken  Report (ATR)  should  be  filled  in  with  the  supporting  information  and  documents  at  the  time  of  closure  of grievance.

4.     Ministries/ Departments  shall  undertake  monthly  review  of  Pension  related  grievances,  pending on the portal to ensure the qualitative redressal of grievances within the prescribed time limit.

5.     The Nodal PG Officer   shall analyze the trend of grievances and conduct a root cause analysis to check the incidence of grievances.

6.     The applicant can file an appeal   against the redressal of his grievance within  30 days of closure of    the  grievance  and  it  shall  be  disposed  of  within  30  days  by  the  Appellate  Authority.  A speaking order shall be passed, attaching relevant documents, if any.

7.     The  grievance  applications,  filed  in  the  physical  form  with  the  Ministry/ Department,  shall  be uploaded on the CPENGRAMS portal to ensure proper monitoring of these grievances.

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NKR/DK/AG