More than 4,600 public grievances are pending with the Income Tax department, the government said today. 

As many as 4,618 public grievances are pending with the IT department under the Central Board of Direct Taxes, 4,158 with Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), 2,161 with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and 529 in the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), Minister of State for Personnel, Public grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy told Rajya Sabha in a written reply today. 

He said 351 public grievances over delay in pensions are pending in MHA, 123 in IT department, 120 inCBEC and 102 in MoHFW. 

"The pending public grievances as per the Central Public Grievances Redressal Monitoring System is 83,999 and pension delay cases as per Centralised Pensions Grievances Redressal Monitoring System is 7,756 in respect of various ministries or departments of Government of India as on August 28, 2012," Narayanasamy said. 

As per Rule 58 and 59 of Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, a time schedule has been fixed for preparation of Pension papers and stages for completion of pension cases by various authorities. 

Though various stages of action laid down in Rule 59 is strictly followed, in isolated cases where it is not possible for the Head of Office to forward pension papers to the Accounts Officers within the prescribed period, there is provision under Rule 64 for determination and payment of provisional pension from the date the payment becomes due after retirement, he said. 

"Further, family pension matters are also given adequate attention. Every effort is made to attend to family pension cases as expeditiously as possible on the basis of details or documents submitted by them. 

"Despite the above provision, any delay brought to the notice of the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare is treated as grievance and is taken up with the concerned authority for redressal. The pending grievances are also reviewed periodically," the minister said. 

He said the Reserve Bank of India has also advised all banks to ensure that any delay in disbursement of pension should be compensated. (PTI)