In major relief especially for government employees serving in militancy affected areas like Jammu and Kashmir, North East as well as Naxal prone pockets, the Union Minister of State ( independent office) the Ministry of Science and Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Earth Sciences; MoS of the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Personnel, Public Claims and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today announced that the government has relaxed the rules on family pensions for missing central government employees.
Under the previous rule, an employee’s next of kin would not receive the family pension if they disappeared and the family pension would not be paid until the missing government was declared dead according to law or until seven years have passed. happened since his disappearance. In accordance with the new MO, in all cases where a public servant covered by the NPS disappears while on duty, family pension benefits will be paid immediately to the family of the deceased public servant and in case of reappearance and resumption of service, the amount paid in respect of the family pension during the interval of his period of absence may consequently be deducted from his salary.
Referring to the new OM of the Ministry of Pensions in this regard, the Minister said that it will bring huge relief, especially in areas where cases of missing government employees are being reported more frequently. He said cases of abduction of central government employees working in violence-prone areas have come to the fore. Therefore, to inspire confidence and protect them and their family interests, changes to pension rules have been made.
The Minister informed that in the event of the disappearance of a State employee covered by the CCS (Pension) Regulations 1972, the benefits of arrears of salary, family pension, retirement gratuity, collection holidays, etc. are paid to the families of missing employees in accordance with the instructions issued on 25.06.2013.
He said that the matter was reviewed in consultation with the Department of Personnel and Training, the Department of Financial Services and the Department of Expenditure and in view of the difficulties faced by the families of these officials, it was decided to extend the advantages of OM of this department. n° 1/17/2011-P&PW (E) of 25.06.2013 to the families of State agents covered by the NPS who went missing while on duty.
Other provisions of the OM state that in all cases where a government official covered by the NPS disappears during service, family pension benefits can be paid to the family if the government official disappeared. had exercised the option for the benefits under the CCS rules (Pension) in the event of death or separation from service for disability/invalidity or the benefits under the CCS rules (pension) is the default option under the rules of the central civil service (implementation of the national pension system), 2021.
The benefit of salary arrears, retirement gratuity and leave cash is paid to the family in all cases where an employee of the State covered by the NPS disappears during service, whether the employee has exercised the option for benefits under the CCS Rules (pension) or under the Pension Funds Development and Regulation Authority (Outflows and Withdrawals under the National Pensions System) Regulations 2015. The payment of benefits to the family of the missing official would, however, be subject to conditions and procedural requirements, as set out in that department’s regulations. OM of 25.06.2013.
In the event that a staff member covered by the NPS dies during his service and his family receives a family pension under the CCS rules (pension) or the CCS rules (EOP), the permanent retirement account under the national system of retirement would remain suspended until the official re-appears or until declared dead according to law. In the event of a respawn of a state agent, the NPS account would be reactivated and the same account under NPS would become operational. Recoveries of payments made to the family of the missing NPS employee would be made from the indemnitor, as provided by the OM of this ministry dated 25.06.2013. However, in the event that a civil servant is declared deceased at any time or after seven years, the government contribution and the income thereof from the pension corpus accrued under the NPS would be transferred to the government account, and the remainder of the corpus including employee contribution and income therefrom would be paid to the nominee or legal heir, as the case may be, in accordance with CCS rules (implementation of NPS), 2021 and the family will continue to receive benefits in accordance with the CCS rules (pension) or the CCS rules (EOP), as the case may be. be.
Dr Jitendra Singh reminded us that since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the Pensions and Retired Welfare Department had introduced a number of groundbreaking reforms including the easing of pension provision family for divorced girls and Divyangs, the introduction of facial recognition technology. through the mobile application to facilitate the submission of the life certificate by the elderly pensioners, the electronic pension payment order, the assistance of the postal service to facilitate the retirement process, etc. granting a large increase in family pension emoluments to the Divyang children of a deceased civil servant/retiree are not only pension reforms, but they are social reforms with far-reaching implications.
(With GDP entries)
