Cashless Health Insurance Mandatory for Punjab Government Employees, Pensioners

Cashless Health Insurance Mandatory for Punjab Government Employees, Pensioners

Chandigarh: The Punjab government today said the newly notified cashless health insurance scheme has been made mandatory for all government employees and pensioners.

The government has also issued directions to the effect that member enrolment forms regarding this should be submitted till November 30 to the concerned DDOs so that the employees could avail benefits under the scheme.

Disclosing this here today, an official spokesperson said that as per the Punjab Government employees and Pensioner Health Insurance Scheme (PGIPHIS), all the employees and pensioners would get the annual cashless insurance facility up to Rs 3 lakh from January 1, 2016.

The spokesperson further said this scheme will be mandatory for employees presently in service, pensioners, new employees after the expiry of enrolment period and Pensioners (In special circumstances) whereas it would be optional for all India service officers (presently serving).

Under this scheme, Punjab government has made arrangements for the Indoor medical treatment and care for pre-decided diseases and hazardous diseases.

This scheme would be applied equally to the persons availing old pension scheme and new pension scheme.
According to the spokesperson, PGIPHIS provides the facility of cashless treatment concerning those diseases under State service rule-1940 which include day care (those cases which require a patient to be admitted in the hospital for at least 24 hours) and those on which the OPD medical expenditure accrued is less then Rs 3 lakh per family per year.

Besides this, the medicines for the chronic diseases would also be provided at the designated hospitals and medical stores in each district and block under the cashless scheme.

The spokesperson said under the scheme all the registered beneficiaries can avail the treatment facilities from the hospitals designated by the state government in Punjab, Chandigarh and NCR regions.

PTI

Punjab government: New guidelines for two-year extension in service after 58 years

Punjab government: New guidelines for two-year extension in service after 58 years

Chandigarh: Punjab government today issued fresh set of guidelines for two-year extension in service to employees after the age of superannuation.

According to norm, the date of superannuation of a Punjab government employee other than a Class IV government employee, is the date on which he attains the age of 58 years.

These new instructions have been issued superseding the earlier guidelines issued in October 2014 and January 2015, an official spokesperson of the Finance Department said.

According to the new guidelines, extension in the service would be denied to those employees who have been either chargesheeted or a decision has been taken to chargesheet them under rule 8 of Punjab Civil Services (Punishment & Appeal) Act, 1970.

Employees, who may have been awarded major penalty that still hold impact on the day of their retirement or awarded major penalty three years before their retirement or against whom competent authority has given permission to prosecute them in criminal case, would also be denied extension, the spokesperson said.

He said all such officers would be ineligible for extension after the age of 58 years.

As per the new guidelines such officers/officials who have already got extension and serving in the first or second year of extension and who are under the above mentioned disqualifications, the cases of such employees would be reconsidered and if found guilty, the grant of extension in service would be nullified.

It has also been clarified that if the request of the officers/officials has been rejected for extension on the ground of administrative and criminal case pending against them at the time of retirement, if such employees have been exonerated at later stage, their extension in service cases would not be reconsidered, he said.

The spokesperson further said if any officer/official committed grave misconduct during extension or received notice for the misconduct committed by him in past, the benefit of extension in service to such employees could be denied without serving any notice, he added.

Inputs with PTI