SPARSH - The grievances which are mostly are.

Indian Military Veterans

Dear Esteemed Members,

I am not against SPARSH. New technologies need to be accepted and adopted. 

All the Army officers till computerisation came in big way used to receive statement of account (pay slip) and pay at the end of the month. If you ever happen to visit CDA (O), Golibar Maidan, Pune, you would have definitely seen the auditor who had your IRLA used to work out your pay and allowances and deductions manually as till 1978 we did not have even calculators. Computers were never even heard of. Yet all Army Officers posted anywhere in the world used to get their pay slips and pay credited at the end of the month . This is the central pay distribution system. SPARSH is nothing but new avtar of Central Pay Distribution. I am sure even in IAF and Navy too the same system of manual working out of pay & allowances used to be prevalent. 

Now what does SPARSH need to send my pension to my bank account?

First one : My name as per bank account. 

Second one: Name of my bank.

Third one: My account no.

Fourth one: IFSC of my bank. 

All the details are available in my PPO / E-PPO. Then where is the problem for SPARSH not being smooth and painless. 

We are getting pension in the present system (legacy system) from banks only. Even in SPARSH our pension will come to the same bank. Then where is the problem?

PCDAs have PPOs of all pensioners. Therefore with latest software, few people in SPARSH should be able to send monthly pensions to the 26 lakhs Defence pensioners.

But the problem is not in remittance of pension. 

Banks give monthly pension slip showing all the relevant details. The same can be done by SPARSH. Where is the problem?

Now comes the most difficult item i.e. Life Certificate. SPARSH should simply pay Rs 5 to the bank to generate Jeevan Pramaan or make the CSDs, ECHS, MHs or Col (Veterans) equipped with biometric devices and generate Life Certificate. The same should be sent to SPARSH. Where is the problem?

Now most important is Grievance Redressal. There should be adequate number of Toll free nos to receive complaints from pensioners and there should be a method of registration of complaint on line, give a token no, someone preferably a well experienced person of Def Accts Dept should understand the grievance and sort it out. The progress can be given on line to the pensioner. This is the way most of the e-commerce, mobile operators like AirTel, Jio etc  give progress of complaints. With 200 years of Def Accts Dept by now they should know what kind of complaints or grievances are going to be. The grievances which are mostly are : -

1.   Not correct pension being remitted.

2.  Data in PPO is not correct. Corr PPO is to be generated such as Date of birth of wife, Group X and not Group Y for JCOs/OR, rank, length of pensionable service or for that matter any item in PPO. Amendment is to be given.

3.   Life certificate. Once it is submitted by ECHS or CSD or Col (Veterans) or banks like SBI etc,  SPARSH should be able to accept it, give a receipt and then include in the monthly pension slip. It is just a database issue. 

4.    Death of pensioner. On death of pensioner, the widow should be able to submit to CSD, ECHS, MH, Col (Veteran) or banks. The death certificate be sent on-line. SPARSH should accept on line death certificate and commence family pension. It can be done in just one hour. Again a database issue.

 5.    All grievances can be redressed if one has the will and empathy for the poor Ex-Servicemen which presently is lacking woefully in Def Accts Dept. 

6.   I cannot find out any reason why a grievance cannot be understood, why action in a time bound manner cannot be done. 

7.    It is always better to carry out a pilot study by Def Accts Dept personnel going to remotest areas and field SPARSH. Once glitches in implementation of SPARSH are ironed out, then enlarge the geographical areas to include small towns, big towns, cities and metros. In this phased manner in a two or three years, SPARSH could be implemented successfully. 

8.   How are Army officers getting their monthly pay even in remote areas where banks are functional. The same system should be adopted for SPARSH. 

9.  In my view as a layman with least computer knowledge, Def Accts Dept have bitten too much technology which they are not able to chew. That is why they ran to TCS and agreed to pay Rs 135 crores for soft ware support.

10.   To be very frank what kind of software support is required which the Def Accts Dept has not got?

Please kindly think over these issues as we have to live with SPARSH whether we like it or not. 

Your views are most welcome for benefit of all us.

Warm regards, 

Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)