A slew of digital measures rolled out to help retired cops

The measures were initiated by the Principal Accountant General (Accounts and Entitlements) Jaya Bhagat last year

Mumbai: Retired police personnel from all over Maharashtra will soon have all information as well as grievance redressal tools regarding their post-retirement benefits at their fingertips. The slew of digital-age measures includes a weekly video call with concerned officials for addressing issues and queries, a dedicated toll-free helpline and a separate voice mail service for the same purpose for the less tech-savvy, a dedicated email address, a dedicated drop-box server, a YouTube channel to answer frequently asked questions and informative booklets on the same. Pensioners can register for all these services online.

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The measures were initiated by the Principal Accountant General (Accounts and Entitlements) Jaya Bhagat last year with an aim to make things easier for retired government employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, when physical visits to concerned offices were not possible, more so for senior citizens who fall in the high-risk age group. Over the next several months, Bhagat’s office set up the infrastructure required for the initiatives, both physical and digital.

Apart from the online services, a voice mail service, too, was set up so that those not well-versed with internet-based mediums could leave a voice message. Special care was taken to ensure that ample time was given to the callers to understand the instructions and react accordingly. “Our policemen perform a very challenging task and we don’t want them to struggle for their pension after they retire. The purpose behind all these initiatives is of service,” Bhagat told Hindustan Times.

In July this year, Bhagat wrote to Director General of Police Rajnish Seth outlining the measures and seeking his cooperation in implementing them for retired police personnel. In her letter, Bhagat outlined the measures in detail along with the procedure to register for them, so that the same could be made available for policemen.

She added that as part of their outreach, workshops were conducted earlier this year at the state as well as Mumbai Police headquarters. Further, interactions with Pensioners’ Associations and Pension Adalats were also held at the Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Pune, Palghar, Satara, Ahmednagar and Kolhapur district treasuries, with a view to increase awareness of these initiatives and address pensioners’ concerns.

Last month, Seth issued instructions to forward the information about the AG’s measures to all unit heads under the state police, with links for pensioners to register themselves for all the services. Accordingly, Special Inspector General of Police (Administration) S Jayakumar sent a detailed note of the measures to all Commissionerate. Unit heads are now supposed to ensure that the information is forwarded to all police personnel. “We are sharing the information with all personnel so that, at the retirement stage, they can make use of this information,” Jayakumar said.