SPARSH resolved legacy discrepancies, brought down average disposal time: Defence ministry

New Delhi, Sep 22 (PTI) System for Pension Administration-Raksha (SPARSH) has resolved legacy discrepancies upto 87 per cent of the cases and also strengthened grievance redressal, bringing down average disposal time from 56 days in April 2025 to just 20 days now, officials said on Monday.

SPARSH is the 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", the defence ministry said in a statement.

At present, 202 Defence Accounts Department (DAD) offices, 4.63 lakh Common Service Centres, and over 5,200 bank branches functioning as SPARSH Service Centres, it said.

"As on date, 31.54 lakh defence pensioners across India and Nepal are now onboarded on SPARSH," the statement said.

SPARSH has resolved legacy discrepancies -- upto the extent of 5.60 lakh out of 6.43 lakh cases (87 per cent), 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, it added.

Additionally, more than 100 outreach events were conducted in last one year, the officials said.

Till now, 211 SPARSH outreach programmes and 193 Raksha Pension Samadhan Ayojans (RPSAs) have been organised. During this year, the 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, it said.

Suo moto scrutiny of pension cases were carried out by SPARSH and Rs 3.02 crore has been disbursed to 48 pensioners in May 2025, the ministry said.

In financial year 2024–25, a defence pension budget of Rs 1,57,681 crore was disbursed on a real-time basis through SPARSH, it said.

"When One Rank One Pension (OROP)-III was implemented in July 2024, Rs 1,224.76 crore was transferred to 20.17 lakh beneficiaries within just 15 days," the statement said. PTI KND NB NB