New Delhi [India], September 23 (ANI): System for Pension Administration - Raksha (SPARSH) has resolved legacy discrepancies--upto the extent of 5.60 lakh out of 6.43 lakh cases (87%)--ensuring protection of entitlements of defence pensioners. It has also strengthened grievance redressal, bringing down average disposal time from 56 days in April 2025 to just 20 days now. As on date, 31.54 lakh defence pensioners across India and Nepal are now onboarded on SPARSH, a release from Ministry of Defence said.

Additionally, more than 100 outreach events were conducted in last one year. Till now, 211 SPARSH Outreach Programmes and 193 Raksha Pension Samadhan Ayojans (RPSAs) have been organised. During this year, DAD has actively participated in 13th and 14th All India Pension Adalats held under Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare, where 260 and 252 grievances were resolved on the spot, respectively.

As per the release, suo-moto scrutiny of pension cases was carried out by SPARSH and 3.02 crore has been disbursed to 48 pensioners in May 2025. In FY 2024-25, a Defence Pension Budget of 1,57,681 crore was disbursed on a real-time basis through SPARSH. When One Rank One Pension (OROP)-III was implemented in July 2024, 1,224.76 crore was transferred to 20.17 lakh beneficiaries within just 15 days.

SPARSH is world's largest pension system for defence personnel. It stands as a transparent, inclusive and efficient model of governance--transforming pension administration from fragmentation to integration and from delay to dignity. At present, 202 Defence Accounts Department (DAD) offices, 4.63 lakh Common Service Centers, 5200+ bank branches functioning as SPARSH Service Centers, the release said.

On September 18, at an outreach program at Bengdubi Military Station near Siliguri, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan hailed SPARSH as a Digital India, DBT-driven, 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance' reform that brings the entire pension lifecycle onto a single platform. Pensions are now directly credited by PCDA (Pensions), removing intermediaries and reducing error pathways.

Approximately 31 lakh defence pensioners are now onboarded on SPARSH with direct credit into their bank accounts, underscoring the system's reach. (ANI)