Retired Delhi police officials to access their department’s key documents on Digilocker

PTI, May 8, 2022, 8:28 PM IST

Even retired Delhi police officials can now access their various key documents like discharge certificates and pension payment orders through Digilocker, thanks to the department’s decision to link those credentials to the country’s online digitalization service.

The extension of service, which was available only to the serving officials with their I-cards etc linked to the Digilocker till now, to the retired officials would rid them of the hassles of running from pillar to post to access their key documents, said police on Sunday.

According to the standard operating procedure issued by the Delhi Police on May 2 on the issue, in order to facilitate retired police personnel access their documents anytime and anywhere, the police districts and its various units shall upload discharge certificates, pension payment orders and retirees’ identity cards on Digilocker.

The retired police personnel can subsequently access these documents from the Digilocker using their user ID and password, it said.

With the Delhi police providing its former officials access to their various key documents on Digilocker, they would be readily able to download a copy of any of their documents in case they lose or misplace it.

Digilocker is an online Indian digitalization service and flagship initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and IT under the Digital India Programme which aims at ”Digital Empowerment” of the citizen by providing access to authentic documents in citizen’s digital document wallet.

Besides discharge certificates and pension payment orders, other documents that former Delhi police officials can access on their Digilocker are retirees’ identity cards and senior citizen cards.

Aadhar Card is mandatory for Digilocker application for the verification process. One has to ensure the Aadhar Card number of the retired officer is uploaded along with his date of birth, name and registered mobile number, the SOP for the purpose said.

With this service, the retired police officials will easily access their digitally verified important documents through mobile apps and web interfaces and even secure cloud-based platforms for their storage.

This service will also provide them with the digitally acceptable documents under IT Act, 2000 from their originating department, said officials.

Special Commissioner of Police (Welfare) Shalini Singh said a meeting was held with office bearers of the Delhi Police Retired Gazetted Officers Association and those of the Delhi Police Mahasabha during which some changes were formulated based on suggestions by retirees. This was the first of a kind meeting with the office bearers of both the organisations, she said.

She said the move followed after it was realized during the meeting that if a retired officer living away from Delhi needs some of his misplaced documents, it would be a great hassle for him to come all the way back and approach the police headquarters here.

Keeping these factors in mind, the Digilocker facility has been extended to retiring as well as retired officers from this financial year onwards, she added.

”We are uploading documents of those who are retiring or have retired so that they can access it from anywhere and. If his ID card or pension-related documents are lost, he need not apply for it again, he can just download it from the Digilocker,” she added.

The retired officers of the Delhi Police have also appreciated the move and said they are happy that it has been implemented within a month after the meeting.

Retired DCP, G S Awana said usually there is a difference between the ID cards of serving officers and those of retired officers and they are often asked for proof even though they share their post-retirement ID cards. ”Now with Digilocker, the ID cards of retired officers are also verified and uploaded on it. This is as good as any digital document. It also enhances their authenticity. I also downloaded it from Digilocker and it was easy,” said Awana who joined the force in 1982 and retired in 2018. “We will not have to carry all documents now as everything is already uploaded,” he added.

Appreciating the move, former ACP Ved Bhushan said this step is quite helpful and if he goes abroad and loses his documents, he can always download them from his Digilocker and show it to concerned authorities.

”World is going digital so we need not carry all these documents everywhere. Also with age, we tend to lose our memory. This way, we know our documents are safe and can be availed at any time required be it my pension papers, Aadhar Card or anything. It could be even my property papers,” said Bhushan, who joined the force in 1983 and retired in 2018. The Delhi Police SOP on the facility said the Digilocker is an intra-DP assisted system and shall be monitored by the IT Cell of the PHQ while the Pension Cell and Pension Cell staff of PHQ shall monitor the uploading of the pension-related documents.

Concerned Pension Cell and Head Assistant Character Roll (HACR) of district police and its other units shall be responsible to upload the documents from time to time.

The uploading process has already started from April 30 this year and will continue, it stated. The SOP further stated that additional DCsP-II of districts and units’ DCsP shall ensure that the documents are uploaded without delay. The Provisions and Logistics Unit shall be responsible for uploading identity cards of retired police personnel on the Digilocker while the Senior Citizen Cell of all police units shall be responsible for uploading senior citizen cards of retired police personnel, it reads.