The Directorate of Pension, Provident Fund & Group Insurance came into being in the year 1983 vide Finance Department’s Notification No. 11169-F dated 16.09.1983. Initially this Directorate used to deal with Municipal Pension cases only. Later, with the passage of time, the Pension cases of teachers of Primary and Secondary Non-Government Educational Institution, Panchayat and Municipal Employees, Employees of Khadi Board, Higher Secondary Council, West Bengal Pollution Control Board, College Service Commission, Social Welfare Board etc. have come under the fore of this Directorate. This is worthy of mention that first School Pension Payment Order was issued on 07.12.1985.

Besides, this Directorate of Pension, Provident Fund & Group Insurance was entrusted with the task of determination of interest on Provident Fund accumulation Operator-wise and allotment of Provident Fund Interest as due to the Operators who deal with the Provident Fund cases of different Non-Govt. Aided or Sponsored Institutions, Panchayat Bodies and Local Bodies etc.

In terms of G.O. No. 734-F(J), Dated, 28.02.2018 the work relating to control of management of General Provident Fund for the Group D employees of the state has been entrusted to this Directorate. This will be operational w.e.f. 01-04-2018.

Organisational Setup

Present Strength and Vacancy Position (As On 06.03.2018) :

Functions of the Directorate

The functions and responsibilities of the Directorate in brief are as follows :

• To dispose of pension cases as early as possible but not later than 3 (three) months of its receipt from the Pension Sanctioning Authority concerned.
• To appropriately and promptly address the grievances of retired teachers/pensioners etc. concerning this Office.
• Revision Of Pension Cases Under Ropa-2009 :

  More than 60,000 revision cases of above category have been settled by issuing revised PPOs as per ROPA-2009. Further, cases pertaining to issue of fresh PPO for granting pension to unmarried/widowed/divorcee daughters and disabled children are also finalized by DPPG within reasonable time.

• Disposal of Pre-81 Cases :

  School Education Department by issuing a Memo. No.539-SE (P & B) dated 01.11.2010 has introduced pension/family pension in respect of employees who retired or died-in-harness prior to 01.04.1981 under the West Bengal Recognised Non-Govt. Aided Educational Institutions. In the Financial year 2017-2018 more than 103 Pre- 81 cases have been settled.

• Handling Legal Issues :

  To take appropriate action on the orders of Hon’ble High Court.Due to certain orders of Hon’ble High Courts covering a huge nos. of petitioners earlier around 2009-10 huge numbers of High Court cases exceeding 9000 were disposed of in following years.

  The main causes of High Court cases are delayed payment of retrial benefits which may be attributed to the following reasons:

  • Delay in submission of pension papers by the Pension Sanctioning Authority (PSA) – District Inspector of Schools (P.E.)/District Inspector of Schools (S.E.) etc.
  • Delay in furnishing replies to Return Memos. (RM) issued by DPPG to PSAs.
  • Delayed settlement of Court cases of pensioner(s).
  • Delay in receiving pension cases sent to School Education Department by the DPPG.

  Total performance of Law Cell in handling court cases is given as follows :

  Year	No. of Cases Received	Cases disposed of
  2014	9910	Almost 100% of cases are disposed of
  2015	6920	Almost 100% of cases are disposed of
  2016	5675	Almost 100% of cases are disposed of
  2017	7981	Almost 95% of cases are disposed of
  2018 (up to 5th March, 2018)	1550	Almost 90% of the cases disposed of

• Redressal of Public Grievance :

  A Grievance Cell in this Office is working under one Assistant Director who looks after various queries and redress the grievance from the pensioners.

• Disposal of Petitions under R.T.I. Act :

  A cell has been opened in the Office under the provision of The Right to Information Act. One Assistant Director has been nominated as State Public Inspection Office who looks after the letter received under the provisions of the Act during the current financial year under review. So far, 194 letters have been received and disposed by the Cell.

• Payment of Provident Fund Interest by DPPG :

  To sanction up-to-date interest on Provident Fund on the basis of claims for interest submitted by different operators of P.F. Deposit Accounts.

  Section 6 of West Bengal Non-Government Educational Institution and Local Authorities (Control of Provident Fund of Employees) Act, 1983 and Section 9 of the West Bengal Non-Government Educational Institutions and Local Authorities (Control of Provident Fund of Employees) Rules, 1984 provide for payment of interest at Government rate on the Provident Fund balances of employees belonging to the Non-Government Educational Institutions and Local Authorities. Accordingly DPPG, West Bengal sub-allots fund admissible for payment of interest at Government rate on Provident Fund balances of employees of Primary, Secondary Schools, other Non-Government Educational Institutions, Colleges, Universities, Municipalities, Panchayat Bodies and certain other Organizations.

  DPPG has been authorized to undertake the work of calculation and payment of interest on Provident Fund deposit account under the provisions of the aforesaid rules in terms of the Finance Department’s Order No.4560-F dated 28th April, 1992. The fund is allotted directly to the concerned Treasury/Pay and Accounts Officer under intimation to the Administrator/Authority on receiving his copy prepares a bill in T.R. Form No.7 (duplicate) at the concerned Treasury/P.A.O. The Treasury Officer on scrutiny of the bill passes the same effecting payment of interest by transfer credit to Provident Fund Deposit Account under the Head “8336-Civil Deposit-00-800-Other deposits-Provident Fund Deposits etc.” The amount of interest as mentioned above will be drawn out of the Head of Account “2049-Interest Payment-Interest on Other Obligations-Interest on Deposits (charged)-Interest on P.F. Deposits etc.” Every year Finance Department, Government of West Bengal places lump sum amount in favour of DPPG for sub-allotment of requisite fund to the Treasury/P.A.O. to enable them to effect transfer credit from this head to Provident Fund deposit fund account of the respective authorities.

  At the close of the financial year the authority/administrator concerned shall prepare a statement of accounts showing month-wise figure covering entire financial year and submit it to the DPPG. On receipt of the claim the DPPG shall check and reconcile the account with those maintained at the Treasury and allot fund admissible to the Treasury for payment of interest. Administrator/Authority produces the claim as mentioned above along with Pass Book/Certificate given by the concerned Treasury Officer indicating the closing balance of the previous financial year(s). Operators of the fund are advised to submit their claim within 31st May each year for the interest of the previous financial year. The entire calculation is processed through computer and printed orders were issued earlier for allotment of interest. From the Financial Year 2014-15 allotment of interest on P.F. deposit Fund of the employees of Non-Government Educational Institution and Local Authorities are being made through e-Bantan module of IFMS.

  At present there are 1405 (approx.) No. of operators of PF. For the current year i.e. 2017-18 the amount sanctioned by the Finance Department is Rs.1124 crore and so far, Rs.675 crore has been allotted to 950 no. of operators. Rs. 449 crores will be allotted to 162 no. of operators within 31.03.2018.

• Maintenance of GPF Accounts of Gr-D employees of State Govt. :

  The Directorate has been entrusted with the work of maintenance and control of GPF Accounts of Gr-D employees of the State. Calculation of yearly interest will be made by DPPG and final payment on superannuation/resignation etc will also be settled by this Directorate from 01-04-2018. Necessary arrangement for upgradation of infrastructure and enhancement of work force are being made.

e-Governance Initiatives of DPPG

“e-Pension” Project -The Objective of the State Government as well as this Directorate is to handover Pension Payment Order to the concerned employee on the date of his/her superannuation or immediately before it. With an objective view to reduce the limitations of paper and file based functioning of DPPG, PSAs and other stakeholders and make the process of application, processing, scrutiny and approval of pension cases and issuance of Pension Payment Orders DPPG has taken up an initiative to make online the entire process related with pension and paperless. Accordingly e-Pension portal was launched on 1st April, 2017.

e-Pension for School Teachers -The pension of the employees of the non-government educational institutions is governed by the West Bengal Recognized Non-Govt. Educational Institution Employees (DCRB) Scheme, 1981, in terms of G.O. no. 136-Edn(B), dated 15.5.1985. As per above scheme, the pension sanctioning authority (PSA) is required to send pension application, Service Book and other allied papers to the Director of Pension, Provident Fund & Group Insurance, WB (DPPG) for examination and issuance of Pension Payment Order. E-Pension portal utilizes the database of the iOSMS portal of School Education Department for pension matters of teachers. E-Pension portal is integrated with iOSMS and IFMS. E-Pension portal covers entire life cycle of Pension process that starts before retirement (or Die-in-harness) of employee and ends in regular pension payment from treasuries. All pension related information are captured and verified and then forwarded to DPPG for Audit of papers and PPO generation. DPPG audits the relevant documents and for passed cases prepares PPO and sent to Treasury & Pensioner & PSA. On receiving PPO, Treasury prepares pension bill and pensioner get pension from designated bank monthly.After e-Pension project has been launched, a revised guidelines and time schedule for e-Pension scheme have been formulated vide G.O. No. 62-SSE/17 dated 17th April, 2017. The very essence of guidelines is summarized below:

Process flow in e-Pension Portal for School Teachers -

• Concerned employee shall start process of application for pension through e-Pension portal twelve months prior to his / her date of retirement. He / She will submit application online, print the application forms, attach the required enclosures and submit the hard copy not later than eleven months before retirement.
• The School (Secondary, Higher Secondary, Junior High, Junior Madrasah, Madrasah, High Madrasah) / Sub-Inspector of Circle (Primary Education) shall process the pension case, send the same to the District Inspector of Schools (Pension Sanctioning Authority) in online mode as well as in hard copy not later than seven and half months ahead of the date of superannuation of the employee. The Pension Sanctioning Authority shall send the papers to the Joint/Deputy/Assistant Director of Accounts in online mode as well as in hard copy for audit not later than six months prior to the date of superannuation of the employee.
• The Joint/Deputy/Assistant Director of Accounts will return the pension case to the PSA with necessary certificates in both online and hard copy mode not later than four months prior to the date of superannuation of the employee. After obtaining certificate as to the correctness of the case from the Joint/Deputy/Assistant Director of Accounts, the Pension Sanctioning Authority shall send the pension papers to the Directorate of Pension, Provident Fund & Group Insurance, West Bengal in online mode only at least three months in advance of the date of superannuation of the employee.
• Directorate of Pension, Provident Fund & Group Insurance shall complete audit observations. Audit objection cases shall be returned to the P.S.A. for complying the observations and the resubmission to the DPPG so that the Pension Payment Order shall be issued within service period of the respective employees and in the error-free cases the DPPG shall authorize e-Pension Payment Order before the date of superannuation of the employee concerned.
• The time schedule for issuing P.P.O. has been reduced within 1 to 2 months and presently this office is auditing 6 to 12 months advance cases.

Introduction of e-Pension portal for employees of Panchayat, Municipalities and other Aided Offices -
On the average more than 1500 new pension cases are received per month by this Office. Pension case of other Local Bodies and Panchayats are generally received long after the retirement of the employees. This factor poses a problem in achieving the objective. The Directorate has taken necessary steps to introduce e-Pension scheme for the Municipal & Panchayati Raj employees. Model Government Order for this purpose has been shared with the concerned Departments for early issue of Government Orders.