KOHIMA, SEP 3 (NPN): The Nagaland government has acknowledged recurring delays in settlement of pension, gratuity, GPF/NPS and other retirement benefits, attributing them to procedural lapses, incomplete documentation and delays in processing and forwarding proposals.
The issue came up in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly on Thursday when NLA member Nuklutoshi sought information on delays in settlement of retirement benefits.
State chief minister Dr. Neiphiu Rio said procedures were already in place but were not always properly followed by officials and retiring employees. He said some employees might also be unaware of the procedures and the responsibility could not be attributed entirely to the existing system.
Rio said the government had constituted a committee to examine existing procedures and identify measures to improve and digitise the system, adding that digitisation had already commenced.
He said departments did not always adequately guide retiring employees on filling and submitting pension papers and the documents required. Delays in issuing provisional release orders could also hold up no-demand certificates required for processing pension cases.
Pension papers, he said, should be forwarded to the Accountant General’s office at least six months before retirement so that benefits could be finalised before the retirement date. However, some departments accumulated papers of several retiring employees before forwarding them, resulting in delays.
On final GPF withdrawal, Rio said proposals passed through multiple stages. For gazetted employees, proposals involved initiation and authorisation at the Accountant General’s office, processing at the Head of Department level and submission to the Finance Department for final clearance and issuance of withdrawal authority. For Grade-IV employees, applications were initiated at district offices before being forwarded through directorates, HODs and the Finance Department.
He said GPF proposals were frequently rejected due to incomplete documents, including release and sanction orders, death certificates and succession certificates. Delays could also arise when information regarding the death of beneficiaries and required documents was not furnished promptly. Nuklutoshi stressed that pension was a rightful entitlement earned after years of public service and constituted the principal livelihood for many retired employees. He said unnecessary delays caused hardship, particularly in meeting household and medical expenses.
He said the problem was systemic and involved coordination among departments, Finance, treasuries, district offices, accounts authorities and the Accountant General. Factors included incomplete or outdated service records, missing entries, errors in service books, verification procedures, manpower shortages, frequent transfers of dealing officials and movement of physical files.
Pre-retirement verification sought: Nuklutoshi called for pre-retirement verification to begin preferably around two years before retirement so discrepancies in service records and other documents could be corrected in advance.
He also sought clear timelines and accountability mechanisms so retiring employees could track the status of their cases and identify the office or official responsible for delays.
Digital systems cited: Nuklutoshi suggested that Nagaland draw lessons from digital pension and financial management systems in other northeastern States.
He cited Assam’s payment tracking system for online processing and tracking of pension cases, Meghalaya’s automatic monthly pension payments through treasuries and sub-treasuries along with biometric self-verification, and the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems of Mizoram and Sikkim.
He urged the government to move from a fragmented and reactive process towards a digital, proactive, time-bound and accountable system, saying every employee should be able to retire with confidence that pension and other retirement benefits would be processed promptly and received with dignity.