New Delhi, May 23: In a major relief, particularly for government employees, serving in militancy affected areas like Jammu and Kashmir, North-East region (NER) as well as Naxal prone pockets, the Union Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh on Monday announced relaxation in family pension rules for missing government employees.
According to the earlier rule, the Next of the Kin (NoK) of an employee would not receive the family pension if he went missing and the family pension would not be paid till the missing government employee was declared dead in accordance with the law or till seven years had passed since he went missing.
As per the new Office Memorandum (OM), in all cases where a Government servant covered by National Pension Scheme (NPS) goes missing during service, the benefits of the family pension will be immediately paid to the family of the missing government servant and in case he re-appears and resumes service, the amount paid as family pension during the intervening time of his missing period can be accordingly deducted from his salary.
Referring to the new OM of the Department of Pension in this regard, DrJitendra, who is also the Union Minister of State (independent charge) Ministry of Science and Technology; Minister of State (independent charge) Ministry of Earth Science; besides MoS of Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, said, “This is going to provide huge relief, particularly in those regions where instances of government employees going missing are reported more frequently.”
He said, “Cases of abduction of central government employees working in violence-prone areas have come to the fore and therefore to instill confidence and to protect them and their family interests, the changes in the pension rules have been brought about.”
The Union Minister informed, “If a government servant covered by the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 goes missing, the benefits of arrears of salary, family pension, retirement gratuity, leave encashment, etc. are paid to the families of the missing employees in accordance with the instructions issued dated June 25, 2013.” He said that the matter had been examined in consultation with the Department of Personnel and Training, Department of Financial Services and Department of Expenditure and considering the hardship faced by the family of such government servants, it was decided to extend the benefits of this department’s OM No. 1/17/2011-P&PW (E) dated June 25, 2013, to the families of government servants covered by NPS who went missing during service.
The other provisions of the OM state that in all cases where a Government servant covered by NPS goes missing during service, the benefits of the family pension may be paid to the family if the missing government servant had exercised the option for benefits under CCS (Pension) Rules on death or discharge from service on disability or invalidation or the benefits under CCS (Pension) Rules is the default option under the Central Civil Services (Implementation of National Pension System) Rules, 2021.
The benefit of arrears of salary, retirement gratuity and leave encashment shall be paid to the family in all cases where a government employee covered under NPS goes missing during service, irrespective of whether the employee had exercised the option for benefits under CCS (Pension) Rules or under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Exits and Withdrawals under National Pension System) Regulations, 2015. Payment of the benefits to the family of the missing government servant would, however, be subject to the conditions and procedural requirements, as mentioned in the OM dated June 25, 2013, of the Department of Pension.
In the case of a Government servant covered under NPS goes missing during service and his family is given a family pension under CCS (Pension) Rules or CCS(EOP) Rules, the Permanent Retirement Account under National Pension System would remain suspended till the government servant re-appears or till he is declared dead in accordance with the law.
In the event of the re-appearance of a government servant, the NPS account would be re-activated and the same account under NPS will become operative. Recoveries of payments made to the family of the missing NPS employees would be made from the indemner as provided under this (Pension) Department’s OM dated June 25, 2013.
However, in the event of a government servant being declared dead at any time or after seven years, government contribution and returns thereon from the accumulated pension corpus under NPS would be transferred to the government account and the remaining corpus comprising employees’ contribution and returns thereon would be paid to the nominee or legal heir as the case may be in accordance with CCS(Implementation of NPS) Rules, 2021 and family will keep getting benefits as per CCS (Pension) Rules or CCS(EOP) Rules, as the case may be.