Prime Minister went beyond the rulebook to do away with almost 2,000 obsolete rules: MoS Jitendra Singh

Jitendra Singh said this while addressing the 52nd Pre-Retirement Counselling (PRC) Workshop here.

He said that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the courage and conviction to break the taboos of the past.

PM Modi has also initiated a series of administrative reforms with the extensive use of technology to create an enabling environment, he said.

"Rules such as denial of a pension if an employee rendered less than 10 years of service, missing employees denied entitled benefits till seven years have passed, dependent divorcee daughters not granted pension benefits, all such obstructionist rules were scrapped," he said.

Administrative initiatives under the leadership of PM Modi, such as the Pre-Retirement Counselling workshops, Anubhav Awards and Pension Adalat have ensured the timely disbursal of pensionary benefits to a large number of retiring employees every year, he said.

"Ease of Living was made possible for retired employees by first introducing the Digital Life Certificate for continuation of pension and now Face Recognition Technology has been introduced for DLC. Bhavishya portal, Digilocker, CPENGRAMS exclusively for Pensioners have been launched to facilitate retiring and retired employees," he said.

Jitendra Singh said PRC Workshops have been made comprehensive and integrated with all concerned Departments including Pension disbursing banks, CGHS and SCOVA meetings institutionalised with Pensioners Associations, reflecting the 'Whole of Government' approach.

Stating that today there are three crore pensioners, more than the working employees, Jitendra Singh said, they constitute a resource pool that will help achieve the goal of Viksit Bharat@2047.

"When India celebrates its centenary of Independence, the youth will shape the Viksit Bharat@2047, along with valuable support by a growing population of veterans," he said. (ANI)