Govt committed to ‘one rank one pension’ rollout
In an effort to reduce court cases related to pensions, and litigation involving land management of cantonments, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday directed his Ministry to evolve a policy in this regard. In his message on “Good Governance Day”, he also reiterated that the Government is committed to early implementation of ‘one rank one pension’ and said “measures are being taken for the same.”
Stressing the need for addressing the grievances of ex-servicemen through information technology in a time-bound manner, Parrikar said, “I have instructed the concerned officers to evolve a policy for reducing court cases in service matters including pensions as well as in issues of cantonments pertaining to land management and civilian interface.”
He also ordered regular monitoring by senior officers of the pendency of public grievances.Talking about “Good Governance Day” being observed by the NDA Government in honour of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Parrikar said his Ministry takes pride in joining this occasion for bringing in transparency and accountability in its working.
He said greater emphasis was now given to the use of technology in order to make the system prompt and efficient and to bridge the gap between the Government and the citizens. listing the examples of use of technology, he said the Ministry has adopted initiatives like promoting e-governance, e-procurement, biometric attendance, digitisation of records, online disposal of public grievances and use of online monitoring of the status of Court,Tribunal and Human Rights cases.
An intra-Defence Ministry portal was also developed for supporting these applications in the Ministry, the Minister said adding the Directorate General of land Records has made good progress in digitization of defence land records. The Defence Ministry is one of the biggest land holders in the country with more than 17 lakh acres. However, poor maintenance of land records has led to encroachment of defence land in many States leading to prolonged litigations and land scams.
Parrikar said the History division of his Ministry has also digitised War Records and several other records like recruitment rules, civil lists among others are likely to be placed on the Ministry’s website soon. The Minister also invited for suggestions and ideas via email to nic-asst.Mod@nic.In to further the cause of good governance.