Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Srinagar March 23 (KINS): Jammu and Kashmir administration has decided to check the service books of all employees to ensure there are no undue financial benefits to employees at the time of retirement
There are at present 4.50 lakh J&K government employees. A government employee becomes eligible for pensionary benefits after he completes 20 years of service.
Sources said over the years authorities have detected discrepancies in the records of over 15,000 pensioners in Jammu and Kashmir.
A source in the Accountant General Department said that officials have been often noticing discrepancies in the records of pensioners.
“There are 1.60 lakh pensioners in Jammu and Kashmir. There have been discrepancies in records of over 15,000 pensioners over the years,” the source told news agency KINS.
Sources said most of the time pensioners have been withdrawing excess money at the time of retirement. “In one of the cases, a pensioner had withdrawn Rs 2 lakh more than the permissible amount. Withdrawal of excess amount has caused huge loss to the state. Instead of repaying the money, they approach the courts to prolong the matter,” the source said.
In some cases, the source said, pensioners had withdrawn less amounts than they were supposed to receive. “This can either be a clerical error or deliberate mischief by officials,” he added.
Earlier, the Account General had written to the Finance Department that “while verifying the pay fixation at the time of retirement, the accountant general effects recovery of excess amount drawn by retiree from pensionary benefits i.e, gratuity etc, which gives rise to increasing court cases and discontent among state government employees”.
In 2013, the Accountant General Department had framed pay verification cells to check records of the employees before retirement.
“But these cells do not exist. It has now again been decided to establish these cells so that there is less scope for discrepancies in the records of employees,” the source said.
The government has also made amendments in pension rules and discontinued old pension scheme. Post 2012 appointees in departments would receive pensions as per national pension scheme.
The national pension scheme is a contribution based pension scheme in which any individual also has to contribute towards their retirement fund. Earlier pension systems in the country used to be provided only by the government only. (KINS)
