THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : In an effort to solve pension-related issues, the Ministry of Defence has rolled out ‘SPARSH’ - System for Pension Administration (Raksha) as a ‘One Solution’ for all defence/defence civilian pensioners. Governor Arif Mohammed Khan inaugurated the event at Cariappa Auditorium, Pangode Military Station, on Friday. Around Rs 81 lakh of pension arrears was disbursed to four pensioners/beneficiaries during the event.
Controller of Defence Accounts, Chennai, is the nodal agency for the distribution of pension for defence personnel in the southern peninsula and conducting SPARSH Outreach Programme at various places located in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Governor appreciated the efforts initiated by CDA T Jayaseelan of Chennai and his team to conduct SPARSH Outreach Programme. Out of 33 lakh defence family pensioners, over 30 lakh have been brought under SPARSH system. Stalls for SPARSH, Bank, Aadhaar and OROP have been installed in the programme for solving the problems of pensioners. Further, grievances from the SPARSH pensioners have been collected by the team of CDA Chennai for necessary redressal action. The programme was very useful to the pensioners after migration of the pension scheme from the legacy system to new system SPARSH. The highest beneficiary was the nominee of late Leela Marar, mother of Captain U R Das who died in Operation Cactus Lily in 1971.