Over 11.61 lakh government pensioners can now track the status of their pension and grievance redressal through SMS as well as monitor receipts online. Steps have been taken up by the central government regarding “lessen harassment” for senior citizens.
The web portal launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday will facilitate central civil pensioners, family pensioners, and freedom fighter pensioners to observe their entire pension profile digitally by logging into www.cpao.nic.in.
They will also be implemented with SMS facility for tracking status of pension process and their complaint registration as well as disposal. The website, which will serve as a one-stop destination for giving information and speedy redressal of grievances, can also be accessed through mobile devices and it would also provide an option to pensioners to give their feedback.
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Launching the portal, Jaitley said it is an extremely important initiative which will reduce harassment. “Nobody should be harassed, least of all pensioners because they are mostly senior citizens. And they need that resource and their life depends on that resource. So any delay or red tapism can actually cause a lot of harassment if not destitution,” he said.
Jaitley also said that the convenience of tracking pension status on the mobile phone is a giant step taken by the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO). The website will provide the one-stop solution for pensioners to access information relating to the status of pension cases, and pension payments prepared by central ministries and banks.
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CPAO distributes the pensions through authorized banks to central government pensioners and in the current fiscal it is managing the pension budget of Rs 32,070 crore. In 2015-16, the CPAO handled 60,211 pensioners’ grievances.
Speaking on the occasion, Controller General of Accounts M J Joseph said the portal will bring in transparency and accountability and will ensure more active ways of handling pensioners grievances.