The 4,488 pensioners in the union territory of Ladakh have been migrated to the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO), an official said on Saturday, saying the finance department is in constant contact with the Jammu and Kashmir Bank to ensure that they receive their pensions. by the end of the month. To further facilitate the retirement process, the Union Auditor General had issued guidelines for the migration of retirees from Ladakh to CPAO, which is mandatory under the pension payment scheme.

The official said that the administration of Ladakh, in coordination with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), is continuously addressing the issues raised with respect to the Union Territory pensioners such as the authorization of the pension, the timely payment of the pension and the reimbursement of the pension. – disbursing banks.

Some issues that arose due to the discontinuation of pension reimbursement to Jammu and Kashmir by the administration of Jammu and Kashmir in May 2021 have also been successfully resolved to avoid any interruption in the payment of pensions, the manager said.

He said all 4,488 retirees have been migrated to CPAO through the coordinated efforts of Ladakh Directorate of Accounts and Treasury, Office of the Principal Chief Auditor, MHA and CPAO.

The Ladakh Directorate of Accounts and Treasury along with the CPAO have deployed additional staff for this mass migration exercise, which has been completed in the past two months, the official said.

He said the migration process involved collection of the disbursor’s portion of the pension payment order (PPO) from the relevant bank branches, verification of required information and certification by pension accounting offices ( PAO) concerned.

All the PPOs were sent to the CPAO, which in a dedicated and time-limited manner migrated the PPOs to electronic PPOs following the required procedure and returned them to Jammu and Kashmir Bank, the official said.

To speed up the process of disbursing pensions, the CPAO regularly sent electronic copies of e-PPOs to the bank, he added.

The official said Ladakh’s finance department is in constant contact with the bank to ensure that all retirees receive their pensions by March 31.

He said the migration exercise will be useful for retirees as the database for them has been fully digitized.

“This will make it easier for any changes, including increases to the high cost allowance, to be implemented seamlessly in the future for retirees. The migration to CPAO will also be helpful for the spouses of those retirees because the spouse, if any, will start with minimal formalities,” the official said.

He said all retirees are urged to contact their pension payment agencies and verify e-PPO data, particularly with regard to providing spouse details.

After migration, retirees can also collect their pension through any of the CBS branches of any authorized bank nationwide, the official said.