Pension Seva Kendras will facilitate hassle-free and transparent pension process: Assam CM

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today inaugurated the Pension Seva Kendra (PSK) of Kamrup (Metro) District set up by AMTRON at the office of the District Elementary Education Officer.
The Government of Assam approved to set up Pension Seva Kendras by AMTRON (Assam Electronics Development Corporation) in the districts across the state on 28th October 2021 in line with its commitment to improve the ‘Ease of Living’ for citizens. Accordingly AMTRON has set up PSKs in 27 districts to facilitate scanning and uploading of Service Books along with submission of pension proposal through the online Kritagyata Portal.

CM Sarma said that the state government in a bid to streamline the pension procedures decided to set up the PSKs to benefit the pensioners who dedicate a long period of their life to the service of the people. He said that as the school teachers constitute the maximum numbers of pensioners, decision was taken to open the PSKs at the office of the district offices of the education department. However, it will also cater to the services of the pensioners of other departments as well.

Highlighting the operation of the PSKs, the Chief Minister said that the State Government has authorized all District Authorities, Head of Offices (HODs) and Competent Authorities to start the processing of pension proposal within one year of retirement of an employee. The scanning and uploading of Service Book will be done by the PSK Operators and they will forward the Service Book and Record to the HODs functioning as the custodian of Service Book through the Kritagyata Portal.

The HODs after proper compilation of the scanned Service Book and record will forward it to the sanctioning authority i.e. Director of Pension and Accountant General to sanction the pension.
Stating the initiative as a gesture of gratitude to the employees who retire from government service as well as ensuring hassle-free and transparent pension process, CM Sarma said that the PSKs will facilitate retirees to submit forms online in Kritagyata on getting SMS from Head of Offices. It will also help retirees to upload Digital Life Certificate through Jeevan Pramaan using registered device of Jeevan Pramaan besides acting as cyber cafe to help pensioners to download their Pension Payment Order (PPO) and other information.

He further said that scanning and uploading of service book in the Kritagyata portal will help concerned offices to maintain digital record room related to service book. He informed that retirees can also come to PSKs and upload their details in the Kritagyata portal apart from verifying their service book uploaded by PSK Operators. 

Moreover, the Chief Minister said that for better monitoring purpose, the Kritagyata portal will be connected to Head of Offices and CM’s Dashboard. He said that the state government is working to do away with manual handling of files and in line with this Janata Bhawan will be transformed into a paperless office from 2nd October. The Chief Minister also informed that efforts are on to increase the number of PSKs from 27 to 35 to cover all districts of the state.

MLA and Chairman AMTRON Ramendra Narayan Kalita, MLA Atul Bora, Chairman SITA Ramen Deka, Principal Secretary of Pension & Public Grievances Department Archana Verma and DC Pallab Gopal Jha were also present at the programme.