Union minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said that the recently-introduced electronic pension payment order (e-PPO) promises ease of living for senior citizens.

Referring to some reforms introduced in the Ministry of Personnel, he said that the Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare in the ministry was often at the receiving end of complaints from senior citizens about the original copies of their pension payment order getting misplaced.

“In such situations, the pensioners, particularly the older pensioners, had to face several hardships,” said the Minister of State for Personnel.

Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s thrust on digitalisation, Singh said in the last six years there has been rapid progress in this direction and many of the ministries and departments in the government of India were performing nearly 80 per cent of their work through e-office even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Singh congratulated officials in the Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare who had successfully introduced the provision of e-PPO during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which came as a boon to several of the retiring officials who were getting superannuated during the lockdown period and were finding it difficult to physically receive the hard copy of their PPO.

Significantly, the entire process was accomplished much before the targeted timeline in view of the difficulties being faced by the pensioners due to the pandemic, a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry said.

Accordingly, the Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare decided to integrate the electronic PPO generated through PFMS application of CGA (Controller General of Accounts) with Digi-locker, it said.

“This enables the pensioner to obtain an instant print – out of the latest copy of his PPO from the Digi-locker account,” the statement said.

Singh said a number of reforms have been introduced to bring ease of living and convenience in the lives of pensioners.

He said these include pre-retirement workshops and counselling sessions as well as assistance in meaningful engagement in the post-retirement phase of life so that energies, expertise and the experience of senior citizens can be optimally utilised in the service of society and for the cause of nation-building.

Source : Times of India