SPARSH woes....

[Col Mohan]

The SPARSH nuisance would continue for long.

A Veteran who retired in 2001 and having drawn his pension for 22 years is now told by SPARSH that his AADHJAR details are not available with SPARSH.

He received SMS that he has been migrated to SPARSH a few days ago and received his Username and Password.

Waiting for a week on my advice, he waited and logged in at SPARSH with the given credentials. His log in was successful and he manage to change his Password as it is mandatory.  

He also completed submitting the required declarations successfully at site. After this, he was advised that his declarations have been submitted successfully and he may log in to view the status after 48 hours.

He logged in again after 72 hours and found that there was no way he could access his details at SPARSH. The customary Blue Bar on the left was blank.

Trying to check his status of migration, he got a response that there is a demographic failure and his aadhar details are not available at SPARSH. He was also advised to upload his aadhar now. That his request has been successfully received and a Token No was given. He is advised My query is, how is it that the aadhar details are not available with SPARSH, when the same PCDA (P) Allahabad had generated his eEPPO which displayed his Aadhar number and never raised any query for 22 years when they continued to remit all his Pensionary benefits incl the Arrears on OROP till recently? How is it that the details are suddenly missing in their records?

And shamelessly, the powers that be  announce to the world that the CGDA has brought a smile on the face of Pensioners by introducing SPARSH!!

by SPARSH to log in and check the details again after 4-5 days.

He is still waiting and hoping that one day, SPARSH would readmit him amongst the Pensioners!

Col K Mohandas
"ASHIANA", Post Office Junction
Chittur (Palakkad) - 678 101 Kerala
Phone: +91 04923 294674  Mobile: +91 - 9447621171   TSEWA - 1517

[Vasan KS]

Actually I personally welcome the introduction of SPARSH, despite some relatively minor teething problems.

Having taken premature retirement in 1996, I quickly came to realize that there were too many intermediaries between the pensioner and the Treasury that pays the pension. The directorate of veterans at service HQ, the PCDA, the regional PDA or CDA etc, the pension paying bank, CPPC and even the clerk at the local pension bank (who sometimes failed to do his paperwork in a timely manner.)

All these intermediaries have now been eliminated through the introduction of Sparsh.

To make my point even clearer :

I logged into Sparsh only once on 3 rd Nov 2023 , for just about one hour. (Since I am settled abroad, I had to use a vpn to access Sparsh.) 

I have an Aadhaar approved finger print reader. Sparsh portal has uidai’s live biometric authentication functionality ( this is really great, no need to interface with uidai site or Jeevan Pramaan app ).

So I could connect the fingerprint reader to my laptop/ notebook, and within a few minutes, authentication by uidai ( through Sparsh portal) was successful and instantly Sparsh portal showed my identification was successful, and instantly my account at Sparsh showed that next identification dueon 03 Nov 2024

This has never happened so quickly in the 27 annual life certificates that I had submitted in the 27 years since I have retired.  I used to depend on various intermediaries to action my life certificate, and it used to take a few days to a few weeks each year for this drama to play out, till I was assured that my pension would resume. Some years, the pension was stopped too, inspite of the fact that the notarized life certificate sent by me by courier had actually reached the pension branch of PNB, but the branch manager/ pension clerk forgot to post it in my account or forgot to inform CPPC. After lot of emails / phonecalls, they would finally process the life certificate and my pension would eventually resume by Feb or March. 

Boom ! All these intermediaries are now oblivion. I did my life certification in one hour on Sparsh. Importantly I saw the confirmation with my own eyes on the portal. No more having to depend on the pension clerk in PNB branch. (The new terminology for Life Certificate is Annual Identification. I can live with that ! )

Coming back to Col Mohan’s friend’s issue with missing Aadhaar number: Even in my case, for some strange reason, the Aadhaar number was missing in the Sparsh system, so was my email id. (Luckily they had my mobile number, which is how I got my login credentials. ) But these lapses must have propagated from the pension bank due the incomplete records that the pension bank transferred to Sparsh.

Once you update your initial records in Sparsh, there will never be a need to update those again, as you are not dependent on the efficient functioning of the every new clerk who takes over the pension records in your local Bank branch every  2 or 3 years.

Just my 3 cents (originally 2 cents, now 3 due to inflation)

Regards 

Vasan

Wg Cdr ( Retd )

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[Ravindra Waman Pathak]

I agree  with  Vasan if he agrees that widows as per SPARSH  are not supposed to have Family( No link for adding Family) ,they are also not supposed to do LTA nomination( No link for this also), their husbands are alive on SPARSH( Cheers, SPARSH brings back the dead), NRI are geo-fenced( not with standing this SPARSH  asks then to use VPN to bypass geo-fencing( very generous of SPARSH)  and then it asks NRI for Adhar( Who issued these to NRI)

The system does not allow alternate nomination for LTA ( Minor problem as long as both are alive right Veteran Vasan?) Dear sir what after the two? ( Well thats the NOks problem not ours. Right Veteran Vasan?

The verification takes months ( Actually in one known instance 6 months) but that is a minor problem.

The system threatens you that you can't change your Pincode and District and in fact dares you not to change your place of residence. A minor porblem? Right Veteran Vasan?

If you want to add any information to your Family Members you can't. A minor problem Veteran Vasan Right?

This is a request veteran Vasan, you may have had a pleasant experience and I am presuming you have done your selection of IT return Tax Option Old or New regime, but dont opine on behalf of others. Just say you have had a good experience

People often ask me what we can do for the soldiers. The answer is "be an Indian who is worth fighting for. "See if you can be one"

Do I have enemies? Yes.Good. That means I’ve stood up for something, sometime in my life.

Cdr Ravindra Waman Pathak I.N. (Veteran)

Member Veterans Pension Group

Adviser War Widows Association

1 Surashri,1146 Lakaki Road
Shivajinagar 

Pune 411016
raviw...@gmail.com
9822329340  

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[Ramachandran M]

Same is the case with many Veterans including me. Even after uploading the adhaar details, while trying to login, pop up shows "Your adhaar is not registered. When checking the SPARSH portal about status it says "processed". Even the life certificate acknowledgement is not available. 

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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[Vasan KS]

Dear Cdr Pathak,

Though we have not met in person, we have known each other through our previous one to one correspondence on pension matters. I know of all the good work you (and some other samaritans like you) do to resolve many issues for defence pensioners. Your work deserves the highest appreciation.

Regarding introduction of Sparsh, I too have read recently on whatsapp groups that there are many issues with migration to Sparsh. 

I have simply related my experience with Sparsh. I never spoke on behalf of others. 

I think it is important for everyone to share their experiences. I hope it is not being suggested that just because of  all the problems you listed, I should be dishonest and state that I too had a bad experience with  Sparsh ? How will that help  in any way ?

I agree on one point. For pensioners resident in India (who constitute the vast majority), the previous system of bank handling pension matters might have worked ok. Because signing the Annual life certificate required only a stroll to your neighborhood bank and the whole process took only an hour.  Or in case of other pension related issues, it is easy to visit the local pension branch and talk directly to the dealing person. 

But I suspect that many pensioners are not fully conversant wth their entitlement and don’t have the facility to scrutinize the CPPC ‘s calculations etc, and mostly accept whatever amount they get. This is not to suggest CPPC will shortchange intentionally, but human errors are possible. These errors will be minimized in centralized databases of Sparsh and pensioners may feel more confident they are getting their full entitlement in future.

I think Sparsh will evolve and my hope is that many issues that are being faced now, will be resolved eventually. The mistake they made was in trying to rush the whole process, without adequate preparation .  But centralization and digitization of pension records by itself cannot be listed as the cause of those problems you mentioned. In fact this digitization and centralization will solve many problems with pensioners getting their full dues in future. 

I may be in a minority but I hold my views. I sympathize with others who are having problems with Sparsh.  But I welcome introduction of centralized pension record keeping with Sparsh. My experience with CPPC and PNB in pension related matters has been dreadful.

Regards 

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[Mohan Rk]

SPARSH is a catastrophy where a veteran is harassed limtlessly. Just imagine what happens to a semiliterate widow of a PBOR!!

And top it all, there are third rate stooges of the dispensation who would muffle any voices raised.

Sad and terribly disgusting!

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[Suman Chandra]

Dear Cdr,

You are absolutely correct. You have covered almost all the shortcomings of Sparsh. All of us are being taken for a ride by them. The hurriedly recruited staff of Sparsh will take a long long time to even  understand the nitty gritties of the Armed Forces. 

Warm regards 

Col S Chandra, veteran.

Sent from my iPhone

On 11 Nov 2023, at 8:36 am, Ravindra Waman Pathak <raviw...@gmail.com> wrote:



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