PSKs will facilitate hassle-free, transparent pension process: CM
HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, July 29: Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday inaugurated the Pension Seva Kendra (PSK) of Kamrup Metro district set up by AMTRON at the city’s office of the District Elementary Education officer for streamlining the procedures to ease the hardship faced by pensioners.
The Government of Assam approved to set up PSKs by AMTRON in the districts across the State on October 28, 2021 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 proposals through the online Kritagyata Portal.
Speaking on the occasion, Sarma said that the state government in a bid to streamline the pension procedures decided to set up the PSKs to benefit the pensioners who dedicate a long period of their life to the service of the people. He said that as the school teachers constitute the maximum numbers of pensioners, a decision was taken to open the PSKs at the district offices of the education department; however, it will also cater to the services of the pensioners of other departments as well.
Highlighting the operation of the PSKs, the chief minister said that the state government has authorised all district authorities, head of offices (HODs) and competent authorities to start the processing of pension proposals within one year of retirement of an employee. The scanning and uploading of service books will be done by the PSK operators and they will forward the service book and record to the HODs functioning as the custodian of the 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., director of Pension and Accountant General to sanction the pension.
Stating the initiative as a gesture of gratitude to the employees who retire from government service as well as ensuring hassle-free and transparent pension process, Sarma said that the PSKs will facilitate retired employees to submit forms online in Kritagyata on getting SMS from head of offices. It will also help retirees to upload a digital life certificate through Jeevan Pramaan using a 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 books in the Kritagyata portal will help concerned offices to maintain digital record rooms related to service books. 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 for better monitoring purposes, the Kritagyata portal will be connected to the head of offices and CM’s dashboard. He said that the state government is working to do away with manual handling of files and in line with this 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 chairman AMTRON Ramendra Narayan Kalita, MLA Atul Bora, chairman SITA Ramen Deka, principal secretary of Pension & Public Grievances Department Archana Verma and DC Pallab Gopal Jha were also present in the programme.
