BANGALORE: Getting your provident fund claim settled may soon be hassle-free. If the Employees Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) makeover plan becomes a reality, you will get the claim settled within three days instead of the present one month or even more.

Bangalore has been chosen for the pilot project of reinventing EPFO, and soon the project would begin, according to S. Raghuram, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Karnataka Region, Bangalore. He was speaking at an interactive programme with members of the National Institute of Personnel Management here on Friday.

Working of the organisation has not remained the same over the years, Mr. Raghuram said and added that the organisation's ambit had expanded from a few industries and a few lakh members to over 180 industries and 3.4 crore members as on today. The organisation, he said, had been adapting itself to the changing trends and times.

Bangalore had been one of the important centres for the organisation, where the membership had increased five-fold over the last five years. Right now, EPFO had over 34 lakh members in Bangalore alone, he pointed out.

Giving statistics, Mr. Raghuram said as many as 7.5 lakh claims were submitted during 2006-07 in the Bangalore office, of which six lakh claims were settled disbursing over Rs. 700 crore. The remaining, he said, had been returned for rectifying mistakes in the claims.

Once the pilot project re-inventing EPFO becomes successful in Bangalore, it would be extended to all offices of the organisation across the country, he said.

Mr. Raghuram's address was followed by an interactive session wherein the members, who apparently deal with the EPFO and employees in their respective organisations, clarified various doubts with the commissioner.

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