New Delhi [India], September 4 (ANI): The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) is committed towards the welfare of the central government pensioners, including the meaningful and accessible redressal of their grievances.
For this, annual special campaigns have been organised since 2024. In the third edition, the department started Special Campaign 3 on 7th July, 2026, for the timely and qualitative redressal of long-pending pension grievances/claims/issues. This campaign had a preparatory phase and an execution phase and concluded on 31st August, 2026.
During the preparatory phase, all ministries, departments, and their attached or subordinate offices were mandated to identify long-pending grievances, claims, and issues received via both online and physical modes. Ministries and departments identified 1,062 target cases under this phase.
Further, 2,131 grievance cases pending on the CPENGRAMS portal for more than one month were also taken up for redressal in this phase.
During the execution phase, the department actively coordinated with the ministries/department for redressal of these cases. Two mid-campaign review meetings were held, and the status of the pendency of these cases was sought regularly.
Coordinated efforts of 40 ministries/departments have culminated in the successful resolution of 2,306 cases out of 3,193 taken-up cases, registering a redressal rate of 72%. Active follow-up is being done for the redressal of remaining grievances.
The demographic distribution of the redressal reflects that most of the resolved cases pertain to the pensioners and family pensioners residing in rural areas. It is a healthy trend, as the redirection of grievances from rural areas in online mode through various portals operated by ministries/departments and the CPENGRAMS portal is bridging the digital divide.
The collective efforts have resulted in the successful redressal of some long-pending cases.
Several major pension grievance resolution success cases were highlighted, where significant financial arrears were disbursed to defence pensioners and their dependents:
In a notable case, Rs 16.70 lakh was released on account of family pension arrears with effect from June 2013 to Jayalakshmi Karnan, the disabled dependent daughter of a defence pensioner.
Similarly, disability pension arrears amounting to Rs 30 lakh were settled in favour of defence pensioner Idan Singh with effect from September 16, 2016, while Kapur Singh, another defence pensioner, received Rs 26.12 lakh as war injury element arrears with effect from January 1, 2006.
Financial relief was also extended to surviving spouses and dependents of defence personnel. Dual family pension arrears totalling Rs 19 lakh were released to Rukmani Nair with effect from September 24, 2012, while Simarto received Rs 10.66 lakh towards liberalised family pension arrears effective from January 1, 1996.
Additionally, Angoori Devi was disbursed Rs 37.40 lakh in family pension arrears, covering the difference between Ordinary Family Pension and Special Family Pension with effect from January 1, 1996.
In other instances involving family members of defence personnel, Saranjit Kaur, the mother of an army personnel, was paid outstanding Special Family Pension arrears with interest amounting to Rs 18.57 lakh along with Ex-gratia arrears with interest totalling Rs 12.60 lakh, effective from July 28, 2008.
Furthermore, pending family pension arrears of Rs 6.27 lakh were released to Sunaina Kumari, the widowed daughter of a defence pensioner, with effect from March 18, 2022.
Resolution of long-pending arrears was also executed for long-standing claims. Time-barred service pension arrears amounting to Rs 25.99 lakh were disbursed to defence pensioner Ranjit Singh for the period spanning October 2004 to December 2023. Additionally, Koranga Lakshmi, spouse of a defence pensioner, received Rs 30.15 lakh towards family pension arrears covering the period from June 2011 to February 2026. (ANI)
2,306 long pending pension grievances redressed during Special Campaign 3: DoPPW
