SPARSH - PROBLEMS FACED BY VETERANS

Dear Sir,

1. Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd), President, TSEWA informed me today 21 Dec 2022 that many migrated pensioners to SPARSH complained to him that their pension is stopped from Nov 2022. As you all remember 56,750 pensioners (including three-star generals) did not get their pension in Apr 2024 which created furore. The plea given is that the banks did not submit the annual life certificate to SPARSH. 

2. I spoke with Lt Col Ranjan Kumar OiC Defence Pensioner’s Contact Centre (DPCC) today. As expected, he did not pick up my call as he is flooded with calls by many pensioners. But as I know he will call me back. After one hour Lt Col Ranjan Kumar did call me and I explained two problems migrated pensioners are facing today .

3. Problem No : 1-Pension Stopped. He explained to me that digital life certificate (DLC) when it is made through Jeevan Pramaan, the pensioner has to enter the following fields.

(a) Enter Aadhaar Number. OTP is sent. Enter OTP.

(b) Enter Name in Aadhaar Card.

(c ) In the drop down menu enter the following: -

(i) Type : Service (for Ex-Serviceman)

      Family (for Widows)

(ii) Pension Sanctioning Auth: Defence-PCDA 

(Pensions) Prayagraj

(iii) Pension Disbursing Agency: SPARSH – PCDA

 (P) Prayagraj

(iv) Agency:  SPARSH – PCDA (P) Prayagraj

(d) Enter PPO NO.

(e) Enter Bank Account No:

(f) Re-Employment: In case the pensioner is reemployed with a consolidated pay then DA is not given. Therefore such pensioners should mention NO. Only those who are in Government servie where DA is given they should mention Yes.

(g) Remarried: for widows drawing ordinary family pension: No.

(h) At times the banks and Common Service Centres are also not quite aware of these requirements, hence they fill up the above fields incorrectly. They do not mention SPARSH-PCDA (P) as PDA and also as agency.

(j) Jeevan Pramaan sends the life certificate of pensioner as per the fields filled by the pensioners. If SPARSH is not mentioned as PDA,  then the life certificate will not reach SPARSH and pension will be stopped.  Those who are migrated but not yet received their pension after October 2022 must go to SPARSH nodal banks like SBI, HDFC, Bank of Baroda or DPDO office and get their DLC submitted second time.

4. Problem No 2:  A 85 year old pensioner from Chennai got a problem in that some banks got merged with Union Bank of India. His pension paying bank got a new IFSC due to such merger. The PPO contains old IFSC. Even if SPRASH remits the pension as per old IFSC in the PPO, the pensioner will not get his pension as IFSC of his pension paying bank has changed to new one. Lt Col Ranjan Kumar told me that his PPO is required to be changed through Record Office.  The pensioner has to go to his pension paying bank of Pammal, Chennai suburb and get a letter stating that the IFSC of the bank got changed from old IFSC to new IFSC. With that letter (stamped with bank’s seal ) has to be sent to the Record requesting a new PPO with new IFSC be issued. The Record Office (in this case Madras Regt, Wellington, Nilgiris, Tamilnadu) will recommend to SPARSH  to issue a new PPO with new IFSC of Union Bank of India, Pammal, Chennai. Since Record Offices all over India are flooded with complaints of SPARSH (19.80 Lakhs have been migrated till few days back), they will take their own time. It is thus recommended this pensioner being 85 year old is to send his son or grandson to MRC, Wellington, sit with Record Officer and get the letter issued to SPARSH to issue a new PPO showing new IFSC. He also should send a copy of that letter of Record Office addressed to SPARSH to TSEWA through email : triservices.hyd@gmail.com. Then TSEWA will request Lt Col Ranjan Kumar to expedite issue of new PPO containing new IFSC. Unless the new IFSC is shown in his PPO (new), his pension will not be credited. This is the hassel with digitization. 

5. Changes in Data. TSEWA is flooded with requests for changes in the PDV of the pensioners who are migrated to SPARSH. I have been told very clearly that the focus of PCDA (Pensions) Prayagraj over next three to four months is to rectify all the glitches in the software of SPARSH. They concentrate only on two issues. One is non receipt of pension. The other is death certificate uploading by widows. Other than these two PCDA (Pensions) Prayagraj is advising all pensioners migrated to SPARSH not to send any emails, ring up SPARSH nodal officers or send letters for making changes to their data even if it is incorrect. Incorrect data will not affect receipt of pension. As long as the pensioner is getting pension now from SPARSH, they should not worry too much on changes of service no, or name of pensioner (abbreviated or full) or date of birth of spouse or change of name of regiment or qualifying service etc. All such mistakes in PPO of migrated pensioners will be attended only in the month of May 2023 and onwards. 

6. Migration Put On Hold. I was informed that migration to SPARSH has been put on hold. All those who are not yet migrated will continue to get their pension through legacy system. The widows whose husbands were not yet migrated should submit the death of certificate of husband to the bank and tell them to send it to Record office. The pension paying bank is supposed to send the death certificate to CPPC who will work out the pension of family pensioner and advise the pension paying bank to remit the family pension without waiting for any communication from PCDA (Pensions) Prayagraj vide Circular No 218 (can be downloaded easily). 

7. On Migration to SPARSH. I have been told that once balance 13.20 lakh pensioners are migrated sometime in Apr – May 2023, they are required to submit annual life certificate through Jeevan Pramaan within two months of receipt of user id and password even if they submitted their life certificate in Nov 2022. Otherwise, pension is likely to be stopped for want of life certificate in SPARSH. Such pensioners should enter their data as shown in Para 3 above. 

warm regards, 

Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)