Payment of Ex-Gratia Amount on Death of the UPNL Employee During Service, Uttarakhand

What is the UPNL ex-gratia payment on death during service?

Payment of Ex-Gratia Amount on Death of the UPNL Employee During Service is a death benefit for personnel deployed through Uttarakhand Purv Sainik Kalyan Nigam Limited (UPNL), a public sector undertaking of the Government of Uttarakhand. Where a person on UPNL's rolls dies while in service, an ex-gratia amount is paid to the legal dependants. The amount is listed as Rs 1,00,000 on the Government of India's myScheme portal, which carries the scheme under UPNL.

UPNL exists because Uttarakhand is a state with a very large soldier and paramilitary population, from which a large number of men retire every year. Rehabilitating and re-employing them is a standing challenge for both the state and the Centre. UPNL was set up on 1 March 2004 as Uttaranchal Purv Sainik Kalyan Limited (UPSUL), and was converted into a corporation and renamed UPNL on 31 January 2007. It is registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956.

Two things about UPNL shape how this benefit works. First, UPNL is an outsourcing agency, not a line department, its personnel are sponsored to other departments and establishments and work there, while UPNL remains the employer of record. Second, it is large: UPNL states that around 22,000 ex-servicemen, their dependants and others are engaged through it in Uttarakhand government departments, and that roughly 3,000 ex-servicemen are deployed on security contracts across India under its registration with the Directorate General of Resettlement (DGR), Government of India.

How much is paid and to whom?

The ex-gratia is listed as Rs 1,00,000, paid once, to the legal dependants of the deceased employee. It is not a pension and not a recurring allowance.

The payment is an ex-gratia in the strict sense, a payment made in recognition of a death in service, over and above whatever the employee's statutory entitlements are. It does not replace those entitlements. A UPNL family should expect to pursue this alongside, not instead of, the provident fund and insurance claims described below.

Where a valid nomination was recorded at the time of engagement, that nomination normally decides who receives the money. UPNL's own downloads page carries the personal details form and the individual agreement form that new personnel complete, and the nomination sits in that paperwork. Where there is no valid nomination or the entitlement is disputed, a legal heir or succession certificate is what the claim will turn on.

Who is eligible for the ex-gratia?

You can claim if:

• The deceased was on UPNL's rolls and deployed in service at the time of death, sponsored by UPNL to a state government department, an establishment or a security contract.
• You are a legal dependant of the deceased; typically the spouse, children or parents: or the person named in the nomination filed with UPNL.
• You can produce the death certificate and UPNL's own record confirming the deployment and the date of death.
• You have a bank account in your own name to receive the payment.

You are not eligible and cannot claim if:

• The deceased was not engaged through UPNL at the time of death. Personnel who had already left UPNL's rolls, or who were engaged directly by a department rather than sponsored through UPNL, fall outside this benefit.
• The death occurred after the engagement ended. The benefit is written for death during service.
• You are not a legal dependant and are not the recorded nominee. A more distant relative or a creditor of the deceased cannot claim on this head.
• The death cannot be documented, the death certificate and UPNL's deployment record are both necessary.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the UPNL ex-gratia

1. Inform the deploying department immediately. Report the death to the department or establishment where the employee was working, so that the service record is closed correctly and the date of death is recorded against the deployment.
2. Inform UPNL. Contact the UPNL head office at Andaman Road, Garhi Cantt, Dehradun 248001 on 0135-2750178 or at info@upnl.co.in, or the regional office at Kusumkhera, Kaladhungi Road, Haldwani on 05946-297530, and ask for the death-claim papers applicable to the deceased's engagement.
3. Assemble the documents; death certificate, UPNL service record, nomination or legal heir certificate, your Aadhaar and a bank passbook in your own name.
4. Submit the claim to UPNL through the deploying department, and collect an acknowledgement with a file reference.
5. File the parallel statutory claims at the same time — the Employees' Provident Fund claim, and either the Employees' State Insurance claim or the Workmen's Compensation claim depending on the district and the circumstances of the death.
6. Follow up on the file with the UPNL office in Dehradun or Haldwani, which is where the sanction is issued.

There is no online application for this benefit. UPNL's website carries government orders, downloadable forms, EPF and ESI links and contact details, but not a claim portal.

What else the family is entitled to

The ex-gratia sits on top of a set of statutory protections that UPNL personnel carry, and a family should claim all of them:

• Employees' Provident Fund. UPNL states that it is the largest depositor of EPF in Uttarakhand. The accumulated balance and the associated benefits are claimable by the nominee or legal heir, and the EPF member passbook can be checked at the EPFO passbook portal, which UPNL links from its own site. UPNL has also circulated the EPFO instructions on correcting member profile details and on the higher-pension option, and profile mismatches are worth fixing before a claim rather than after.
• Employees' State Insurance (ESI). ESI applies in the districts and areas where it has been notified. UPNL's government orders page records the notification of 8 March 2024 extending ESI to all areas of Almora, Bageshwar, Chamoli, Champawat, Pithoragarh, Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi, and an earlier notification of 10 November 2016 covering all revenue villages and areas of Dehradun, Nainital, Tehri Garhwal and Pauri Garhwal.
• Workmen's Compensation. Where ESI does not apply, UPNL provides Workmen's Compensation cover for outsourced personnel and renews the premium annually; its orders page lists the premium periods running from 1 August to 31 July each year.

Because the applicable route depends on the district and on whether the death arose out of and in the course of employment, ask the UPNL office which of ESI and Workmen's Compensation applies to the deceased's posting before filing.

Why claims get delayed

• Deployment record not closed by the department where the employee was working, leaving the date of death unrecorded against the engagement.
• No valid nomination on file, so a legal heir or succession certificate has to be obtained first: usually the longest step.
• EPF member profile mismatch, where the name, date of birth or father's name in the EPFO record does not match the documents, which holds up the provident fund claim even when the ex-gratia moves.
• Bank details incorrect for the claimant, causing a failed transfer after sanction.

Help and where to raise a problem

• UPNL head office; Andaman Road, Garhi Cantt, Dehradun, Uttarakhand

248001. Phone 0135-2750178, fax 0135-2754041, email info@upnl.co.in or rpo@upnl.co.in

• UPNL regional office, Haldwani; H. No. 19, Bank Colony Phase II, Vikasnagar, Bithoriya No. 1, Kusumkhera, Kaladhungi Road, Haldwani (Nainital)

263139. Phone 05946-297530

• Portal, upnl.co.in, which carries government orders, forms and the RTI route
• Directorate of Sainik Welfare, Uttarakhand to 15-C, Kalidas Road, Hathibarkala, Dehradun, phone 0135-2741481, for the wider set of ex-servicemen welfare schemes

Because UPNL is a state public sector undertaking, an unresolved claim can also be pursued through its Right to Information route, and the list of Public Information Officers is published on upnl.co.in.

Key facts to remember

• Ex-gratia of Rs 1,00,000 to the legal dependants of a UPNL-deployed employee who dies during service.
• UPNL is a Government of Uttarakhand public sector undertaking, set up in 2004 and renamed in 2007, with about 22,000 personnel deployed.
• The claim is offline, made through the deploying department and the UPNL office in Dehradun or Haldwani.
• The ex-gratia is in addition to EPF, and to ESI or Workmen's Compensation cover depending on the district.
• A valid nomination avoids the need for a succession certificate and is the single thing that speeds the claim most.

Note: the Rs 1,00,000 figure for this ex-gratia is published on the Government of India's myScheme portal under UPNL. UPNL's own website does not currently carry a separate scheme page or government order for it, so confirm the operative amount and the current claim format directly with the UPNL office before filing.