Bhubaneswar: As part of 5T and Mo Sarkar Initiative, the Department of Finance (D0F) has issued Pension Payment Orders (PPO) on DigiLocker.
Principal Secretary, Finance, Vishal Dev has issued notification, which says that the PPO contains the authority for disbursement of pension.
Details of the pension disbursed are also recorded in the Pension Payment Order. It is undoubtedly the most important document for any pensioner.
“Many a time pensioners face difficulty as the Pension Payment Order gets soiled over a period of time or is lost / misplaced. Particularly, after the death of the regular pensioner, if the Pension Payment Order is not traced, the family pension conversion gets delayed causing extreme hardship for the family pensioner,” Mr.Dev said.
Considering the above difficulties, the State Government is now pleased to use the services of DigiLocker, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India to store the Pension Payment Orders in digital format, pointed out Principal Secretary Finance.
The pensioners can download and view the Pension Payment Order as and when required, Mr.Dev said.
The digital format available in the DigiLocker will be treated at par with the physical Pension Payment Order for the purpose of pension disbursement and other administrative requirements.
In this regard, the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) Odisha has been integrated with the DigiLocker portal of Government of India for sharing and retrieval of electronic Pension Payment Order (PPO) and PPO Verification Report, added the Principal Secretary.
The facility will be made available to all pensioners/family pensioners in phase-wise manner.
It is understood that pensioners being senior citizens require handholding support and help in using the above facility. Therefore, the Directorate of Treasuries & Inspection, Odisha will prepare a video-based tutorial which will be uploaded in the IFMS portal as well as in other social media such as YouTube etc. to help the pensioners in accessing the DigiLocker for retrieval of their Pension Payment Orders.
All Treasuries will also provide necessary handholding support to the pensioners for using the DigiLocker facility, Mr.Dev told concerned officials.
The telephonic support through Toll free No. 18003456739 will be available for the pensioners in all working days through the IFMS Helpdesk in the Directorate of Treasuries & Inspection, Odisha, he announced.
The pensioners can also submit their grievance, in case, if the data available in the DigiLocker mismatch with the original Pension Payment Order issued to them.
These grievances can be submitted electronically through IFMS portal or physically to the concerned Treasury Officer / Bank. The Directorate of Treasuries & Inspection, Odisha will centrally monitor the resolution of such grievances in a time bound manner, he added.