A two-day Bankers’ Awareness Program was organized by Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare at Amritsar on 30th & 31StAugust, 2022 for officers of Punjab National Bank handling pension related work, covering the Northern Region of the country.
A team of officers from DoPPW took various sessions on Pension policy reforms& digitization regarding disbursement of pension to Central Government pensioners, with the objective of updating the field functionaries of Punjab National Bank. Special sessions were organized on Income Tax matters related to pensioners as well as Digital means of submitting the Annual Life Certificates. Chief Controller (Pension), CPAO shared the reasons which are the causes for pensioner’s grievances and suggested actions which may be taken by the bank for faster redressal.
Discussions were held for linking of Integrated Pension Portal developed by DoPPW with the existing portals of PNB to provide seamless services to pensioners. Awareness of field officials & Pensioners is of utmost importance to ensure implementation and usage of the benefits of Government of India’s welfare measures. Pensioners’ welfare initiatives, such as Face authentication technology for Digital Life Certificate may be advertised extensively by Banks. Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare will take policy initiatives to address issues faced by field officials and pensioners. Digital life certificate and face authentication technology would be a game changer for pensioners and banks in submission of life certificates. As such, these awareness programs serve as a huge capacity building exercise for bank officials.
This program was the first such Awareness Program for Central Pension Processing Centers and field functionaries handling pension related work in Punjab National Bank. Some pensioners drawing pension from PNB also attended the 2nd day of the program for an interactive session with DOPPW and PNB. It is expected that through these programs, the objective of enhancing ‘Ease of Living’ of pensioners will be achieved to a great extent. On similar lines, awareness programs will be conducted in collaboration with other Pension Disbursing Banks in the year 2022-23.
Bankers’ Awareness Program, Amritsar, 30th & 31st August, 2022 was concluded by Sh. Sanjiv N Mathur, Joint Secretary, Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare. Detailed feedback was taken from bank officers on various policy issues to make proactive changes to ensure “Ease of Living” for pensioners. More than 50 officers from northern zone from CPPCs and pension dealing branches were awarded certificate of Participation during valediction ceremony.