Nagaland government employees face pension delays as procedural lapses, incomplete records and departmental bottlenecks slow retirement benefit payments
KOHIMA — Retiring Nagaland government employees are facing delays in receiving pension, gratuity, GPF/NPS and other retirement benefits due largely to procedural lapses, incomplete documentation and delays at the departmental level, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio told the Assembly on Thursday.
Responding to a starred question from MLA Nuklutoshi, Rio said departments sometimes compile pension papers of several retiring employees and forward them in bulk to the accountant general’s office, despite rules requiring the papers to be submitted at least six months before retirement.
He identified inadequate guidance to retiring employees, delayed issuance of provisional release orders, late submission of pension papers and errors in service records as some of the reasons for delays.
Other issues included incorrect pay fixation following promotion or grant of MACP, wrong entries in service books and delays in forwarding pension papers to the accountant general’s office.
On GPF, Rio said final withdrawals were also delayed by office procedures and the movement of proposals through different levels. Some proposals take months to reach the Finance department for final clearance and withdrawal authority, he said.
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Incomplete documentation, including missing release or sanction orders, death certificates and succession certificates, can also result in cases being rejected and subsequently delayed.
Regarding the National Pension System (NPS), Rio said it was implemented in Nagaland from January 1, 2010, but no regular state government employee covered under NPS had so far retired on superannuation.
He said cases relating to pension benefits following the premature deaths of NPS employees were being submitted to Protean for finalisation and that there were no pending cases in this regard.
Rio said the government had constituted a committee to examine the existing pension system and identify ways to improve and digitise the process.
He acknowledged that departments were not adequately guiding retiring employees on when to submit pension papers and what documents were required. Delays in issuing provisional release orders also affected the process of obtaining no-demand certificates required for pension settlement.
The chief minister stressed that pension papers should not be held until they can be compiled in bulk and that cases should be processed well before an employee’s retirement.
Nuklutoshi said pension was not a favour but a rightful entitlement earned through years of public service. For many retired employees, he said, pension was their principal source of livelihood, making unnecessary delays particularly difficult when meeting household and medical expenses.
He said the problem appeared to be systemic rather than confined to a particular department, with pension cases requiring coordination among departments, Finance, treasuries and accounts offices, district offices and the accountant general.
Nuklutoshi cited incomplete or outdated service records, errors in service books, verification issues, manpower shortages, frequent transfers of dealing officials and the movement of physical files as factors contributing to delays.
He called for pre-retirement verification to begin about two years before retirement so that discrepancies could be addressed well before an employee leaves service.
He also sought clear timelines and accountability mechanisms so employees could track the status of their pension cases and identify the office responsible for any delay.
Nuklutoshi suggested that Nagaland could learn from systems in neighbouring states, citing Assam’s online pension-payment tracking system, Meghalaya’s automatic monthly pension payment system and biometric self-verification facilities, Mizoram’s Integrated Financial Management Information System and Sikkim’s integrated financial management system.
He urged the government to replace fragmented and reactive procedures with a digital, proactive and time-bound system, saying employees should be able to retire with the assurance that their pension and other retirement benefits would be processed promptly and received with dignity.
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