SPARSH FAQs
Question 1. Why has the SHQ discarded a perfectly functioning system
of Pension disbursement that has been refined over decades for
SPARSH?
Answer 1. Prior to implementation of SPARSH, all cases were
processed manually with all Stakeholders which involved movement of
manual documents starting from the retiring Officer/ Sailor to all
Stakeholders which in turn increases the processing time of Pension
claim and further remittance of Pensionary benefits even after retirement
of the retiring Personnel. Existing system involved errors in PPO, filing
manual grievances, personal visit of Pensioner to Pension offices for
rectification of errors, etc. SPARSH has been implemented with the
vision of “Right Pension at the Right time” which aims at providing
comprehensive solution to administration of Pension to the Defence
Pensioners in line with the vision of government of India of digital India.
Some key features are:-
(a) Easy validation and rectification of data through self-
verification thereby creating “First time correct data” with assured
accuracy.
(b) Digital process of Pensioner identification, removing
requirement of multiple visits by Pensioners to Pension Offices.
(c) Single window for Pensioners to avail Pension related
services such as facility to view the Pension details, Pension
entitlements, Pensioner profile details, income tax forms, etc.
(d) Processing Pension Claims digitally with minimal movement
of documents which helps in processing Pension Claims before
retirement.
In addition, largest grievance of Pensioners was wrt incorrect
disbursement of Pension by Banks as correct disbursement was
dependent on ability of Bank to correctly interpret PCDA(Pen) Allahabad
circular. However, now PCDA (Pen) Allahabad will also be responsible
for disbursement of Pension to the existing Pension Bank A/c of all
Pensioners, thereby obviating errors. This is akin to model of
disbursement of Pay by NPO to an individual’s Salary Account.
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Question 2. Don’t SHQ realize that Centralized Disbursement through
CDA may not be the best option because whilst they are proficient
auditors, providing service would need a different approach?
Answer 2. The SHQ has been proactively flagging this same point to
MoD at all levels. Accordingly, CGDA has signed MoUs with large
number of Banks and Common Service Centres (e-Mitra) to enhance
Pan-India footprint and last mile connectivity. Software support is being
provided by well established software developer TCS. PCDA(P),
Allahabad is working closely with SHQ through SPARSH Management
Committee, with 2 – Star representatives from the Services, to address
all complaints/ grievances during migration expeditiously.
Question 3. Will the Pensioner be given the option of not migrating to
SPARSH and retain current payment through bank CPPCs since it is his
money at stake?
Answer 3. As per the directives of Ho’nble RM and Defence Secretary
during review of SPARSH on 04 Mar 22 and 11 Mar 22, CGDA must
mandatorily obtain non-consent of a Pensioner, in writing from those
Pensioners desiring to retain the legacy system. If the Pensioner is
unwilling to migrate, the Pension should be processed through legacy
system only. However, it is recommended for all Pensioners to
migrate onto SPARSH. Being a digital platform it will give the Pensioner
greater transparency of his Pension account and speedier processing of
his/ her requests, making a truly paperless and trouble free process.
Outliers retaining the legacy system through Banks may find the service
support sub-optimal since most focus will be on the new system.
Question 4. What is the timeline for migration of legacy Pensioners to
SPARSH?
Answer 4. CGDA is in the process of migration of legacy Pensioner’s
on-board SPARSH, as per following timelines:-
(a) Post 01 Jan 16 till 01 Jun / 01 Jul 21 for Sailors and Officers,
respectively by Jan – Mar 22. A total of 12,561 Naval Pensioners
have been migrated as yet.
(b) Post 01 Jan 06 till 31 Dec by 15 Mar – Jun 22.
(c) All legacy Pensioners by 31 Dec 22.
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Question 5. How will CDA ensure correctness of Pension migration
from banks to PCDA (P), Allahabad so that my Pension is not incorrectly
reduced/ stopped? What do I do in case this happens?
Answer 5. CGDA through PCDA (P) is exercising due diligence in
migration of personnel from legacy system of payment of Pension by the
banks to SPARSH. Prior onboarding onto SPARSH, data mapping is
undertaken by PCDA (P) in consultation with the bank where the
individual is drawing the Pension from and compared with data held with
concerned Pension Sanctioning Authority and only after the basic
minimum check of 38 mandatory fields, cases are being accordingly
migrated. If even after the mandatory checks, if the Pension gets
stopped or amount reduced, the Pensioner needs to follow the following
steps:-
(a) SPARSH Facilitation Centre. Pensioner can visit SPARSH
Facilitation Centre (PNB and SBI) as mentioned under service
locator tab in the https://sparsh.defencepension.gov.in website.
(b) SPARSH Helpline/ Toll-Free Numbers. 18001805325,
05322421877, 05322421879, 05322421880.
(c) Common Service Centre. CGDA has concluded MoU
with CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd with the aim to provide
last mile connectivity to Pensioners especially those who reside in
remote areas of the country. CSC has about 3, 75,000 operational
outlets and the applicant/ beneficiary can visit any nearby CSC
Centre to enquire/ avail the services.
(d) Indian Navy SMART. Contact SMART (more details below).
Question 6. What is the Navy doing to assist Naval Pensioners during
the transition to SPARSH?
Answer 6. In order to help resolve grievances/ queries of the
Pensioners post migration, the Navy is making considerable efforts
towards ensuring dedicated organizational support for our Veterans in
helping them tide over any and all challenges. Major amongst them are
as follows:-
(a) Setting up of SPARSH Migration Assistance Response
Team (SMART ). SMART has been set up at NAVPEN by
15 Mar 22 to ensure smooth transition of Naval Pensioners. The
Navy despite acute manpower crunch is creating this dedicated
team of 01 Officer and 25 Sailors to help provide best possible
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support to our Veterans in helping make this migration as smooth
and trouble free as possible.
(b) SMART Helpline Number . Special dedicated helplines
have been created. These will be manned on all working days from
0900-1700 hrs as follows:-
Category Helpline Number
Sailors 022- 2085 0328/ 2507 5622/ 2507
5455
Officers 022- 2507 5608
(c) SMART eMail IDs. Pensioners/ NoKs can send their
queries / problems on the following email ids which have been
created to specifically address migration on SPARSH related
issues:-
Category eMail IDs
Sailors offcmigration-
[email protected]
Officers [email protected]
Question 7. Does the SHQ not understand that many of the old
Pensioners and NoKs, particularly PBORs are not computer literate
enough to manage the migration? And many of them stay in villages with
poor internet coverage?
Answer 7. SHQ is fully apprised of the need for enhancing the physical
outreach by CGDA. Accordingly, CGDA has concluded MoU with CSC
e-Governance Services India Ltd with the aim to provide last mile
connectivity to Pensioners especially those who reside in remote areas
of the country. CSC has about 3,75,000 operational outlets and the
applicant/ beneficiary can visit any nearby CSC Centre to enquire/ avail
the services mentioned below:-
(a) Pensioner Data Verification (PDV).
(b) Annual Identification through Digital or Manual Life
Certificate.
(c) Lodging of Grievance.
(d) Registering Service Request.
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(e) Providing Information against queries.
(f) Request for initiation of Family Pension on demise of the
Pensioner.
Question 8. If the primary Pensioner has passed how NoK will be
on- boarded onto SPARSH?
Answer 8. SPARSH gives transparent view to the Pensioner to his
Pension account through a platform which will capture and maintain a
complete history of events and entitlements of Pensioners right from the
date of commencement of Pension to the date of cessation of Pension
due to his/ her last eligible beneficiary. NoK/ Claimant needs to login
through https://sparsh.defencepension.gov.in and follow the following
steps:-
(a) Under the Services Tab, click the Report Event i.e. Death,
Missing, Conviction, Initiate Family Pension.
(b) Upload necessary documents and fields on the portal.
(c) Validate and proceed the details entered.
(d) Validation and approval by PCDA (P).
(e) Receipt of Login credentials.
(f) Login and validate the details for remittance of Pension.
Question 9. How will the Life Certification be done on SPARSH?
Answer 9. The Pensioner can submit Life Certificate with the SPARSH
PPO No. by either of the following methods:-
(a) Manual Life Certificate.
(b) Digital Life Certificate.
(c) Using Jeevan Pramaan Portal.
(d) Through e-Mitra/ Service Centre.
Question 10. How can I check whether my account has been migrated
to SPARSH or not?
Answer 10. To check the status of migration into SPARSH, following
steps are requested:-
(a) Go to PCDA (P), Allahabad website through link-
https://pcdapension.nic.in/pcda/index.php.
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(b) You will see a Tab - Migration onto SPARSH which contains
Sub Tab- Check Status.
(c) You will be taken to new page which show- will know your
SPARSH PPO.
(d) You can check your SPARSH PPO by feeding any one out of
three drop down fields:-
(i) ePPO No.
(ii) Personal No.
(iii) Bank Account Number.
(e) In the second field i.e. Enter Option Value, enter details of
fields selected and after the image verification, click submit.
(f) You will be able to see your PPO details on the screen
including the SPARSH PPO No, if migrated.
(g) The SPARSH PPO No. becomes your login id by suffixing
01/ 03 for Service/ Family Pensioners respectively i.e. at the end of
your SPARSH PPO number.
(h) Please login into the SPARSH website
https://sparsh.defencepension.gov.in and use forgot password to
generate your password.
(j) Now the Pensioner would receive a message on registered
mobile number which would contain the password for login.
Question 11. How can I check my personal data on SPARSH and
amend if required?
Answer 11. Post migration of Legacy Pensioners or while processing
Pension claim for normal retirees, there is a provision available for
Pensioner upon login, to amend any data field which he/ she feels is
incorrect and needs amendment. This is known as the Pensioner Data
Verification (PDV) for normal retiree’s. Post identification, same details
are available to a migrated Pensioner also. Following steps are
requested by the pensioner:-
(a) The Pensioner needs to login into
https://sparsh.defencepension.gov.in with the login credentials
received on his/ her registered mobile number and email id.
(b) Post login the Pensioner would be able to view his Personal,
Service, Family, Bank, Pay, Commutation, Nominee Details, etc.
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(c) The Pensioner can make corrections through Manage Profile
Tab available under My Profile Tab.
(d) There are two options for data correction, depending on
nature of data. These are as follows:-
(i) Data Correction requiring Authorization. Changes
are reflected post approval of the concerned data holder i.e.
DOP/ NPO, NAVPEN, Medical.
(ii) Straight Through. Changes are reflected post
amendments by Pensioner.
Question 12. What steps is CGDA taking to prevent fraud so that
someone else does not hack into my account and divert my Pension?
Answer 12. The complete process is akin to a digital banking
transaction. It is linked to OTP which is generated only on the registered
mobile number and email Id of the individual. If due diligence is
exercised by our people as they do for any online transaction, then this
problem wont arise. The SPARSH account is linked to the Pension bank
account of the individual where the individual is already drawing his/ her
pension and KYC is complete. Pensioners should not share Login Id,
password or OTP with any unauthorised person as only then can anyone
else access their account.
A detailed Aide Memoire on SPARSH has been circulated to all
pensioners on social media channels.
