The Central government on Monday introduced a unique face recognition technology for pensioners aimed at bringing ease of living for the retired and the elderly citizens.
The move is expected to benefit 68 lakh Central government pensioners as well as crores of pensioners who fall outside the jurisdiction of the Department of Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and state government.
Launching the face recognition technology for pensioners, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said "this will bring ease of living for the retired and the elderly citizens".
He thanked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as well as UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) for devising this technology and making such an initiative of the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare possible.
The Minister said that the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always sought "ease of living" for all sections of society including the retirees and pensioners who are the nation's assets with all their experience and long years of service rendered by them.
He also reiterated that during the Corona pandemic too, the Department of Pension brought about several reforms for the release of provisional pension and family pension.
The Minister said that the Department of Pension has been extensively using technology to achieve this end, be it the introduction of Digital Life Certificate, the introduction of an intelligent common software "Bhavishya" for all Government of India Ministries for processing Pension cases.
Singh said the effort in issuing Electronic PPOs and pushing the same in Digi locker is a huge step towards Ease of Living and transparency.
He said the Department has also been bringing out e-booklets for Pensioner awareness and carrying out an Awareness campaign on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and other social media. The informative films on social media have become quite popular showing a record number of hits, he added.
The Minister said the grievance redressal portal 'CPENGRAMS' along with a Call-centre is another example of digitization.
He said, at the behest of the Prime Minister, the department also started a portal entitled "Anubhav" to showcase the experiences in Government of retiring officials which have now become a huge resource base for us. The department not only introduced the concept of Pension Adalats but has leveraged technology to hold digital Adalats through video-conferencing.
Singh also informed that the Department of Pension had started the system of registering Pensioners' Associations in different cities and with around 46 registered Associations in different cities.
"The Department has been able to strengthen its hands in being able to reach the grass-root level of the Pensioners for helping them as well as taking help from them in spreading awareness of the Pension Policy Reforms," said the Minister, adding recently the department brought out NPS Service-related Rules as well as Gratuity Rules for officials covered under National Pension System.
The Minister hoped that the mammoth task of Review and Rationalisation of CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 has reached the final stages and shall be released shortly.
( With inputs from ANI )
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