New Delhi [India], March 29 (ANI): Of the total 32 lakh defence pensioners, approximately 31 lakh have been onboarded on System for Pension Administration - Raksha (SPARSH) and their pensions are being directly credited into their bank accounts, said Ministry of Defence.

Launched in October 2020, SPARSH is a 'Digital India' initiative that aims to provide a comprehensive, transparent, and efficient solution for managing defence pensions, including sanctioning and disbursing pensions to the Armed Forces personnel and Defence civilians living across the country.

In order to help veterans and their families, old women and people living in remote areas where there are no computers & internet facilities, Raksha Pension Samadhan Ayojans (RPSA) are organised at various places to resolve their problems. During January 2024 to December 2024, seven RPSAs were organised in different parts of the country.

In addition, more than 90 SPARSH outreach programmes have been organised by the Defence Accounts Department (DAD) during the same period to assist veterans and their families. Department representatives also participated in ESM Rallies, Navy Veteran Meets, Air Force Veteran Conclaves organized by the Indian Defence Forces across the nation.

Ex-servicemen and their families can also get help and required information regarding their pension by calling PCDA (P) toll free number 1800-180-5325, where fully trained staff are deployed to help. So far, more than 50 lakh calls have been answered providing them help and information since its inception in December, 2014.

SPARSH is administered by the DAD through the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions) in Prayagraj and caters to all three Services (Army, Navy, Air Force) and allied organisations.

In the erstwhile Legacy System, Pensions to the Armed Forces were sanctioned by three different Pension Sanctioning Agencies (PSAs) namely, O/o PCDA (Pension), Prayagraj; O/o PCDA (Navy), Mumbai and O/o Jt. CDA (Air Force), New Delhi to personnel of Army, Navy and Air Force respectively. The disbursement of pension was made by over 45,000 branches of Public and Private sector Banks, State Treasury offices, Post Offices and Indian Embassy Nepal.

Multiple agencies, lack of technical expertise, siloed work approach and lack of coordination led to incorrect payouts to pensioners due to delayed or incorrect or non-revision of pension with widows bearing the brunt of this problem, getting fixed at minimum pension rates. Not only were there delays in payment of monthly pensions, there was no visibility or transparency to the pensioners, regarding their data and entitlements. Grievances were not attended to by the PDAs on account of lack of knowledge or laxity.

To mitigate such problems, SPARSH was conceptualized and implemented successfully where sanctioning of the pension and its disbursement directly to the account of the pension was brought onto a single platform.

SPARSH has enabled and systematised correct revision based on data available in data-base, and reduced the time between sanction of pension and payment, revised incorrect pensions, enabled pensioners to have access to their data and entitlements and provided them with the wherewithal to reach out to the authorities with requests for data updation or grievances.

SPARSH is a transparent system, which speaks the truth. It faithfully shows to Veterans and their families, the mis-match/deficiency in data of pensioner [ie Name, Aadhar Number, PAN Number, Date of Birth, Family Details, Mobile Number etc] and also enables them to view their pension eligibility and details in real-time on the portal, which was not possible in the Legacy System.

Such access to information has enabled the pensioners to apply for correction of their data or flag other issues relevant to them by means of online grievance system available on SPARSH. While this has led to an increase in the number of grievances, on the positive side it has provided the pensioners an opportunity to correct their data, which was not possible earlier.

Apart from correcting the data received through complaints, DAD is also taking suo-motu cognizance of data discrepancies and updating the data at its own level so that pensioners do not face any kind of problem related to pension and their pension or family pension continues smoothly.

In order to ensure last mile connectivity for each SPARSH pensioner, SPARSH Service Centers have been set up to help pensioners, especially those who are not tech-savvy, navigate the SPARSH landscape by making available services to them through these centres. These include addressing technical queries/issues, identification, registering Grievances, reporting Causalities (Death/Missing/Conviction etc.), giving IT Saving & Declarations

At present, 201 offices of the DAD, Branches of 16 Banks including IPPB and 4.63 lakh CSCs are operational across the length and breadth of the country to help pensioners.

Due to poor quality of data available with the erstwhile PDAs, the migration of some pensioners has resulted in such data being onboarded on SPARSH. Data updation exercise is being carried out on a war footing for completion at the earliest. (ANI)