New Delhi, Dec 20: The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the courage and conviction to break the taboos of the past, said Dr Jitendra Singh on Wednesday.
“We went beyond the rulebook to do away with about 2,000 obsolete rules which had become irrelevant with time,” Dr Singh said, adding, “PM Modi has also initiated a series of administrative reforms with the extensive use of technology to create an enabling environment.”
The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space said this while addressing the 52nd Pre-Retirement Counselling (PRC) Workshop in New Delhi.
He said rules such as denial of a pension if an employee rendered less than 10 years of service, missing employees denied entitled benefits till seven years have passed, dependent divorcee daughters not granted pension benefits, all such obstructionist rules were scrapped.
Administrative initiatives under the leadership of PM Modi such as the Pre-Retirement Counselling workshops, Anubhav Awards and Pension Adalat have ensured timely disbursal of pensionary benefits to the large number of retiring employees every year, he said. “Ease of Living was made possible for retired employees by first introducing Digital Life Certificate for continuation of pension and now Face Recognition Technology has been introduced for DLC. Bhavishya portal, Digilocker, CPENGRAMS exclusively for Pensioners have been launched to facilitate retiring and retired employees.”
Dr Jitendra Singh said PRC workshops have been made comprehensive and integrated with all concerned Departments including Pension disbursing banks, CGHS and SCOVA meetings institutionalised with Pensioners Associations, reflecting the ‘Whole of Government’ approach.
Today there are three crore pensioners, more than the working employees, the union minister said, adding that they constitute a resource pool that will help achieve the goal of Viksit Bharat@2047.
“When India celebrates its centenary of Independence, the youth will shape the Viksit Bharat@2047, along with valuable support by a growing population of veterans,” he said.
