Leh, March 25: The UT Administration in coordination with Ministry of Home Affairs is continuously addressing the issues raised in respect of pensioners of Union Territory of Ladakh, like authorization of pension, timely disbursement of pension,reimbursement to pension disbursing banks etc. in order to avoid any problems to pensioners.

Certain issues which emerged due to stoppage of reimbursement of disbursed pension to the J&K Bank by the Govt. of J&K in May 2021 have also been successfully resolved to avoid any disruption in the disbursement of pension.

To further smoothen the process of pension, Controller General of Accounts, Govt. of India, issued guidelines on 31st January 2021, for migration of Ladakh UT pensioners to the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) which is mandatory as per the scheme for payment of pension.

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Nearly 4488 pensioners have been migrated to CPAO in these two months with the coordinated efforts of Directorate of Accounts & Treasuries, UT Ladakh, office of the Pr. Chief Controller of Accounts, Ministry of Home Affairs and the CPAO.

The Directorate of Accounts & Treasuries, UT Ladakh as well as the CPAO deployed additional manpower exclusively to complete this massive migration exercise.

The process of migration involved collection of disburser’s portion of PPOs from the concerned branches of the banks, verification of required information, and certification by concerned PAOs. All PPOs were sent to the CPAO who in a dedicated and time-bound manner migrated these PPOs to electronic PPOs by requisite procedure and sent them back to J&K Bank. To expedite the disbursement of pension, the CPAO has sent soft copies of e-PPOs on a regular basis to the J&K bank.

The Finance Department, Ladakh is in continuous touch with J&K Bank to ensure that all pensioners receive their pensions by 31st March, 2022. It may be added that this migration exercise will be helpful to the pensioners of UT Ladakh, as the database in respect of these pensioners has been completely digitized. This will facilitate any changes, including increases in Dearness allowance, to be implemented seamlessly in future for these pensioners.

Migration to the CPAO will also be helpful to the spouses of these pensioners as the pension to the spouse, when required, shall be started with minimum formality. All the pensioners are requested to contact their pension disbursing branch and verify the data of e-PPOs particularly in respect of furnishing details of the spouse. After the migration, pensioners can also draw their pension through any of the CBS enabled branches of any Authorized Bank throughout the country.