Nagpur: Pensioners under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS-1995), which largely includes lower income workers of private sector, appear to have quickly adapted to the new normal. Despite restrictions on allowing visitors to the office, by middle of December, 57,000 pensioners have submitted their life certificates in Nagpur region. This is more than half the pensioners in the region.
In most of the cases it has happened using online methods. Earlier, even to get an online certificate pensioners used to come down to the EPFO office, said officials.
The EPS is managed by Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). There are 1.04 lakh pensioners in Nagpur region, which covers districts of eastern Vidarbha. The certificates submitted so far are hardly 10% fewer than the progress in same period last year, said EPFO officials.
This means that the pensioners have adapted to the situation. Given the Covid situation, the postal department had begun doorstep service to upload the life certificate. Going by the figures, it appears that pensioners have also gone for modes other than the post office service. This includes self-filing by pensioners too.
The postal department has generated over 30,000 certificates in entire Maharashtra. As against this 57,000 have been submitted to Nagpur region of EPFO alone.
The pensioners can also get the certificates from their banks or upload on their own if they have the gadget to take iris scan and finger print, said the source.
Each year, the pensioners have to submit a life certificate by December 31 as proof that they are still alive and can draw pension. Digital Life Certificate (DLC) had to be given even before. Pensioners used to crowd the EPFO office earlier, however, to get their DLCs prepared.
Special camps were held as vehicle loads of pensioners came from far off places like Gondia and Gadchiroli just to get the life certificate done. This year the date has been extended to February 28.
Covid, however, put a brake on the practice. The activity almost came to a standstill as all the restrictions had to be followed. As a result only a small number of DLCs were submitted initially. The pension cannot be continued if the certificate is not submitted.
In November, the department of posts came up with a new service for generating the certificate at pensioners’ doorsteps. Postmen were given the task to reach the pensioners’ homes with a gadget to get their finger print and iris scan, and directly upload the certificate.
Under this the postman comes to your doorstep and the service can be availed by download from the postinfo app. Otherwise the service can be availed at the post office too, said a postal department official.
Vikas Kumar, EPFO’s regional commissioner, said the progress so far is close to that in any normal year.