Odisha launches automated GPF service for govt employees

By Our Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, Oct. 6: Odisha has launched automated its General Provident Fund (GPF) service along with the Push SMS system for its government employees, thus becoming first state in the county to provide the beneficiaries latest updates on their accounts without any hassles.
According to officials, the automation service will benefit nearly two lakh state government employees whose GPF accounts are managed by the Accountant General (AG) of Odisha.
“The officials will now be able to check their GPF status online, just like they browse details of their bank accounts,” Jugal Kishore Mohapatra, state chief secretary, said while launching the GPF automation system with Push SMS here on Saturday.
 The software was planned by the AG Odisha with technical inputs from National Informatics Centre (NIC), NIC, Bhubaneswar.
The chief secretary said the new system was step forward in the mission to achieve paperless office and would help expedite GPF transactions and make the process accurate.
State Principal Accounts General Gargi Kaul said Odisha is the first State to have both the GPF e-statement and SMS push system.
“All the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) must take up the e-scheduling on time so that e-statement and Push SMS can serve the subscribers of GPF.  Till now, the office of the AG of Odisha was issuing the GPF account statement to subscribers annually through the respective DDOs. The employees had to wait till the end of the year to know the exact GPF position,” Mr Kaul said.
Now, employees can instantly check their balance position and all that they have to do is log on to the official website of AG, Odisha http://www.agodisha.gov.in. Besides, they can also point out any omission or mistake to the AG office for quick settlement, she added.
The system has also provision for registration of mobile numbers of subscribers through which they can get their monthly updates through SMS. Any subscription or withdrawal made from the GPF account will send an SMS alert to the subscriber. To avail the system, the employees, however, will have to get themselves registered through their respective drawing disbursal officers (DDOs).
Finance secretary Upendra Nath Behera said Odisha was ahead in different areas of e-governance and this is another significant step towards transparent GPF management.
Deputy Director General of NIC, Bhubaneswar SK Panda and Technical Director RN Behera spoke about technical details of the system. NIC has previously developed software for other administrative departments.