(3). Procedure for Submission of Applications:-
The eligible artistes may submit their applications in prescribed form (Appendix)
enclosing therewith the following requisite documents, through respective State
Government/UT Administrations with their recommendations. Without
recommendations of State Government/UT Administrations, the application
shall not be considered and rejected summarily.
[Note: All documents must be in English or Hindi. Documents in other than
English or Hindi should be accompanied with typed English translation from
authorized translator].
- A recent (not older than six months) clear & coloured passport size
photograph of the applicant to be affixed on the specified place in the
application form;
- Self attested copy of any one document from the following listed documents
for address proof:-
(a) Aadhaar Card issued by Unique Identification Authority of India(UIDAI);
(b)Elector’s photo identity card;
(c) Passport;
(d) Driving License;
(e) ElectricityBill^;
(f) Landline telephone or broadband connection bill^;
(g) Water Bill^;
(h) Consumer gas connection card or book or piped gas bill^;
(i) Bank account statement
(j) Domicile certificate issued by the Government;
(k) Passport of the spouse;
(l) Post office pass book having address of the applicant;
(m)Property registration document
[^ Should not be more than three months old on the date of application].
- Self attested copy of any one document from the following listed documents
for proof of Date of Birth:-
(a) Aadhaar Card issued by UIDAI;
(b)PAN Card
(c) Elector’s photo identity card;
(d) Passport;
(e) Driving License;
(f) Birth Certificate issued by the Municipal Authority or any office authorized to issue Birth and Death Certificate by the Registrar of Birth and Deaths;
(g) Marriage certificate issued by Registrar of Marriages;
(h) Matriculation/10th class certificate or mark sheet of recognized Board;
(i) Domicile certificate issued by the Government.
[Note: Certificate enclosed by an applicant in support of Date of Birth issued
by a Doctor/any other authority certifying age on the basis of physical
appearance of the applicant will not be accepted and application of such
applicant will be rejected summarily].
- Self attested copy of Aadhaar Card issued by UIDAI.
- Original copy of Income Certificate in the prescribed format [Annexure-II(A)]
issued by the Competent Authority of the State/UTs concerned.
[Note: The Competent Authority for issue of Income Certificate in various
States/Union Territories is given in Annexure-II(B)].
- Copies of relevant documents which support the applicant’s contributions
made in the field of Art, Culture etc. or awards, recognition, or distinction
received by the applicant from Central/State Government/Union Territory or
any prominent Literary or Arts Society.
- Duly filled-in and signed prescribed Bank Authorization letter (Annexure-IV)
which is verified & signed by the Manager of the concerned Bank (in original).
- Recommendation letter obtained from the Culture Department of concerned
Stated Government/UT Administrations in the prescribed format [Part-II of the
Application Form (Appendix)].
The application may also be made online through using the Registration/login Page
of Culture Scheme Monitoring System (CSMS) http://csms.nic.in/login/index.php on
the website of the Ministry of Culture www.indiaculture.gov.in under the heading of
‘MOC Schemes Application’.
Till the Ministry of Culture allows/develops fully end-to-end receiving online
application process, the hard copy of duly filled-in application form (Appendix) for
award of Artistes Pension along with all the necessary enclosures as mentioned in
the application form may be sent to “The Director, South Central Zonal Cultural
Centre, 56/1, Civil Lines, Opposite MLA’s Hostel, Nagpur, Maharashtra, Pin-
440001” through respective State Government/UT Administrations with their
recommendations in the prescribed format.
Note: 1. All entries in the application form should be legible and filled clearly.
Incomplete applications and applications without the recommendation of respective
State Government/UT Administrations and necessary enclosures as mentioned in
the application form will not be entertained, in any respect and rejected summarily.
Each page of the application and enclosures should be serially numbered and signed
by the applicant. Further the page number of the relevant document should clearly
be indicated on the check list (Annexure-I).
Note: 2. Ministry of Culture may make such changes in the Application Form as
may be felt necessary from time to time.
Note: 3. All disputes between the Ministry/Central Govt./Deptt. entrusted with the task of disbursement of artistes pension and the artistes pensioner under the Scheme shall be subject to Jurisdiction of Courts at Delhi only.
(3). Nature of Financial Assistance:-
Financial assistance from the Government may be in the form of monthly allowance.
Such allowance given to the Artistes recommended under the Centre-State Quota
will be shared by the Centre and State Government /UT Administration concerned,
with the latter paying a monthly allowance of at least Rs.500/- per month per
beneficiary. The monthly allowance contributed by the Central Government in such
cases shall not exceed Rs.3500/- per month per beneficiary. In any circumstances
the contribution of Central Government and State Government/UT Administration
altogether will not exceed Rs.4000/- per month per beneficiary in which contribution
of State Government/UT Administration should be at least Rs.500/- per month per
beneficiary. Out of Rs.4000/-, the monthly contribution of allowance of Central
Government will be less to the extent the monthly contribution of allowance being
provided to the applicant by State Government/UT Administration.[eg. If State
Government is already providing Rs.1000/- per month pension to an artiste
recommended to get financial assistance from the Central Government under this
Scheme, in that case the contribution of Central Government would be only
Rs.3000/- per month].
(3). Selection of Applicants for award of Artistes Pension:-
The applications of eligible artistes found to be complete in all respects will be placed
before Expert Committee constituted by Ministry of Culture under the Scheme after
getting physical inspection/verification of the applicants done by officer(s) of the
Ministry of Culture or one of the organizations of Ministry of Culture. The Expert
Committee will comprise heads of various cultural organisations under Ministry of
Culture and also assisted by a number of eminent artistes in different fields of art and
culture who have proven their expertise in their respective fields, as decided by
Ministry of Culture from time to time.
The Expert Committee will consider the applications in terms of extant guidelines of
the Scheme and recommend the names of deserving candidates for award of
Artistes Pension solely on merit considering financial position and eminence etc. of
the applicant artistes. The recommendations of the Expert Committee are to be
examined by the Administration Division with reference to the Scheme guidelines
and the rules of the Govt. as also availability of fund under the Scheme to facilitate
an appropriate decision by the Competent Authority. The cases of all the
recommended candidates will be submitted finally for getting approval of Competent
Authority who will be one level above to the Chairperson of the Expert Committee.
Before release of financial assistance to the approved candidates, concurrence of
Internal Finance Division shall be obtained.
(3). Disbursement of artistes pension:-
Monthly Artistes Pension to the approved existing beneficiaries (i.e. pensioner) and
new artistes to be included in the beneficiaries list subsequent to the
recommendation of Expert Committee and thereafter approval of the Competent
Authority, will be disbursed by the Ministry of Culture through Public Financial
Management System(PFMS)/Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) or through Service
Provider (appointed by Ministry of Culture for disbursement of Artistes Pension)
directly into their bank account subject to receiving the following documents
mandatorily online on the email of Artistes Pension Section of the Ministry i.e.
apsection-culture@nic.in every year in November and after examination/scrutiny,
the same are found to be in order:-
- Digital Life Certificate (DLC) of the beneficiary processed through Jeevan
Pramaan Portal (https://jeevanpramaan.gov.in) by using necessary information like
Aadhaar number, Mobile number and Pension Payment Order (PPO) displayed by
the Ministry on its website[Till the time the Aadhaar Card is made mandatory by the
Government for individual residing in the State of Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu &
Kashmir, they may submit coloured scanned copy of their original Life Certificate in
the prescribed format (Annexure-III)]; and
- Coloured scanned copy of original Income Certificate in the prescribed format
[Annexure-II(A)] issued by the concerned Competent Authority of the
States/UTs[Annexure-II(B)].
- The beneficiaries will have to furnish any other requisite information/document(s) as
sought by the Ministry from time to time. In case the requisite documents sought by
the Ministry are not received from a beneficiary, the pension will not be released to
him/her. Further, if any discrepancy is found in the documents furnished by the
beneficiary, the pension may not be released or stopped forthwith till such time the
discrepancy is rectified.
(3). Renewal of financial assistance to existing beneficiaries:-
Subject to the above provisions the recurring monthly allowance sanctioned under
the Scheme to the existing beneficiaries shall be for such period as may be
determined by the Central Government and/or may be continued on year-to-year
basis on receipt of Digital Life Certificate (DLC) and Income Certificate from them as
mentioned in above para 2.(6).
(3). Discontinuance of allowance:-
If the financial means of a recipient improve beyond Rs.4000/- (Rupees four
thousand only) per month or annual income of Rs.48,000/- (Rupees forty eight
thousand only) [This excludes artiste pension assistance amount already getting by a
beneficiary from the Government (i.e. concerned State Govt./UT Administration
and/or Ministry of Culture)], allowance under the Scheme will be discontinued
forthwith without any notice to the recipient. Government may also at its discretion
terminate the allowance after giving three months notice to the recipient.
Any recipient may also relinquish his/her right to receive allowance by giving written
notice to the Government. In such cases, the allowance will be discontinued with
effect from the date of his/ her letter of relinquish.
(3). Pension to the spouse in case of death of beneficiary:-
In case of death of a beneficiary getting artistes pension, the financial assistance
may be transferred, at the discretion of the Central Government, in the name of the
spouse of the beneficiary till life if such request application is received in the Ministry
of Culture from the spouse along with the under-mentioned documents within the
period of six months from the date of death of the beneficiary artiste. The request
may be considered beyond six months upto the period of one year from the date of
death of the beneficiary artiste if the competent authority is satisfied that there was
genuine reasons due to which delay has occurred and the applicant could not submit
his/her application in the prescribed time limit. After the period of one year, the claim
for transfer of pension in the name of spouse will stand to be forfeited and no request
in this regard shall be entertained:-
- Copy of death certificate of late beneficiary in original or self attested;
- Documentary proof to support that the late beneficiary was getting artistes
pension;
- Legal heir certificate in the prescribed proforma issued by the Competent
Authority and an affidavit from SDM or 1st Class Magistrate in proforma;
- Self attested copy of Digital Life Certificate (DLC) of the spouse processed
through Jeevan Pramaan Portal (https://jeevanpramaan.gov.in);
- Self attested copy of latest Income Certificate of the spouse in the prescribed
format [Annexure-II(A)] issued by the concerned Competent Authority of the
States/UTs[Annexure-II(B)];
- Self attested copy of Aadhaar Card of spouse issued by UIDAI;
- Self attested copy of any document in support of address proof of the spouse
as mentioned in para 2.(3)(ii) above;
- An undertaking that he/she is not getting financial assistance under other
Schemes of the Ministry of Culture or other Ministry/Department of Central
Government for the same purpose.
- Bank Authorization Letter in the prescribed format (Annexure-IV)
The financial assistance may be transferred in the name of spouse after getting
physical inspection/verification of the applicant done through officer(s) of the Ministry
of Culture or one of the organizations of Ministry of Culture and finding affirmative
report, examination of the request of spouse in consultation with IFD of the Ministry
and finally obtaining the approval of the Competent Authority.
The following time-lines are prescribed for prompt process of such requests,
subsequent to receiving the same from spouse along with the requisite documents in
the Ministry and found to be complete in all respects:-
- Physical inspection/verification : Three weeks;
- Concurrence of Integrated Finance Division(IFD) after affirmative report
established on physical verification: Two weeks
[if IFD seeks some clarification/document, the prescribed period will be
counted after the same are received from spouse or Administrative Division of
the Ministry];