Indian Military Veterans

\

UNDERSTANDING MIGRATION TO SPARSH -  THE SYSTEM AND THE NEW PENSION PROCESS

The Ministry of Defence has introduced the System for Pension Administration Raksha (SPARSH) as a modern solution to streamline the pension disbursement process for Defence  personnel. The goal of SPARSH & SPARSH Migration is to automate and centralize pension-related activities, moving away from the traditional system where banks played a significant role. This system is aimed at providing greater accuracy, transparency, and ease of use for pensioners, making it a key step towards a more efficient pension management system for Ex-Servicemen.

Introduction to SPARSH

SPARSH is an initiative led by the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA), Prayagraj. The platform centralizes all pension-related tasks, including the crediting of pensions, issuance of Pension Payment Orders (PPOs), grievance redressal, and life certificate submission. Under the old system, pensioners had to rely on bank branches and their Central Pension Processing Centres (CPPC) for disbursements and other updates. This created dependency on banks and often led to delays in pension processing or lack of transparency. With SPARSH, all these tasks are now managed directly by the PCDA, reducing the need for pensioners to visit their banks for pension-related queries.

Though the pensioners’ bank accounts remain the same, the processing of their pensions no longer involves the banks’ CPPCs. Instead, all pension-related queries and actions can be performed on the SPARSH portal. This platform is not only a centralized solution for pension management but also integrates all updates and corrections, including One Rank One Pension (OROP) arrears and any changes in pension amounts due to policies or corrections.