The central government has issued guidelines to all relevant departments on dealing with pensioners’ grievances, instructing them to redress complaints within 21 days regardless of whether a particular complaint is linked to a specific office. Currently, complaints are lodged on a common online platform called the Centralized Pension Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPENGRAMS), regardless of the departments to which the complaints pertain.

According to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, all departments must quickly and efficiently handle and dispose of grievances.

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All ministries and departments must redress grievances within 21 days. They should furnish an ‘interim reply’ on CPENGARMS if it requires more time.

· No grievance is to be closed with the remark ‘It does not pertain to this office’.

· They must conclusively redress the grievances and file an Action Taken Report (ATR).

· They must review the pending grievances monthly and ensure timely closure.

· The designated nodal officers must observe and analyse the causes of grievances or their trends.

· If the complaint is filed with a ministry or department offline, it must be uploaded to CPENGRAMS to effectively monitor and redress them within the prescribed time limit.

· If a grievance is resolved or closed but the applicant is not satisfied, the complainant can file an appeal within 30 days of the closure. As per the guidelines, the appellate authority will dispose of the appeal within 30 days.

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Campaign For Disposal Of Pending Complaints

In another notification today, the ministry provided data on its campaign for disposing of pending grievances. The initiative is to enhance monitoring mechanisms and record management to minimise pendency. It also focuses on easing the rules to make pensioners’ lives easy.

As of October 16, 2024, 3,676 grievances were resolved out of 8,260 cases. The identification of physical files for weeding has also been completed, and the grievances for which reference was received from parliamentary members have also been fully disposed of.