SRINAGAR: Minister of State for the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh, on Wednesday, announced that Central government employees covered under the “Unified Pension Scheme” will now be eligible for retirement and death gratuity benefits.
Addressing a press conference, Dr Singh outlined the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions’ progress over the past 11 years, highlighting reforms aimed at simplifying governance, empowering citizens, and making administration more accessible. He said that employees covered under the Unified Pension Scheme would be entitled to gratuity as per the Central Civil Service (Payment of Gratuity under National Pension System) Rules, 2021. The announcement, he said, fulfils a long-pending demand of government employees and ensures parity in retirement benefits.
Dr Singh said that the new provision reflects the government’s commitment to social security for all categories of employees under the National Pension System. He categorised the Ministry’s work into four major areas that, according to him, define the transformation in governance under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that, for the first time since Independence, a government has taken pride in repealing obsolete rules rather than introducing new ones.
He cited the repeal of over 1,600 outdated provisions, many from the colonial era, as a sign of increasing trust in citizens, particularly the youth. He noted that the decision to make job interviews non-evaluative for certain categories, announced by the Prime Minister from the Red Fort and implemented nationwide by January 2016, was a significant step towards transparency and fairness in recruitment.
Dr Singh said the Ministry’s reforms extend beyond administrative convenience and carry broader socio-cultural implications. Amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act were intended to balance accountability with protection for honest officials. Changes in handling cases of unfair means in examinations were designed to protect students from organised cheating rackets. “We are here to punish the racketeers, not the students,” he said, emphasising a shift from suspicion to support in public policy. He added that these reforms reflect a new narrative in governance, where intent is not presumed guilty and trust becomes central.
He also highlighted the Ministry’s focus on human-centric reforms. Measures such as introducing a digital life certificate for pensioners, revising family pension norms to include divorced and separated daughters, and extending maternity leave to stillbirth cases were cited as examples. Dr Singh said these reforms were informed by first-hand experiences of bureaucratic insensitivity. He noted that over 19,000 long-pending promotions were expedited to provide relief to eligible officials, stating that these actions showed the Ministry’s empathetic approach to policy.
Highlighting innovation as the fourth pillar of reform, Dr Singh pointed to initiatives such as the Capacity Building Commission and the iGOT-Karmayogi platform, which aim to prepare civil servants for evolving challenges. He said the CPGRAMS grievance redressal portal now receives over 26 lakh complaints annually, with a disposal rate of 95–96 per cent. He also mentioned initiatives like ‘Anubhav’, encouraging retiring officials to document their experiences, and the Assistant Secretary programme for IAS officers, which he said help build a knowledge-based, future-ready bureaucracy. “We have moved from red tape to real-time, from file-pushing to feedback-based policy,” he said, describing the shift in governance under the current administration.
Dr Singh also launched key publications and digital initiatives focused on transparency and service delivery. These included 11-year achievement booklets of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), and Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW), along with the Guidelines for the Special Campaign for Family Pensioners’ Grievances, a Compendium of Circulars from August 2024 to June 2025, and circulars related to Central Civil Services rules. In addition, the Sevottam Training Modules were launched virtually to institutionalise excellence in public service delivery. -(KL)
