Guwahati, June 2: Services related to Employees' Provident Fund in the Northeast will now be delivered in a hassle-free and prompt manner.

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), has, in a bid to reach out to its members in the region, upgraded its service centres in Imphal (Manipur), Aizawl (Mizoram), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) and Dimapur (Nagaland) to special state offices.

The offices will focus on special works such as compliance monitoring, grievance handling, claims scanning and forwarding.

The EPFO has also upgraded the Gangtok service centre (which is under the jurisdiction of EPFO, Siliguri) to a special state office.

"A special state office will be headed by an assistant provident fund commissioner-level officer and will have an enforcement officer, social security assistant along with support staff. Prior to their upgrade, the service centres were headed by an enforcement officer with two staff," S. Das, assistant PF commissioner, EPFO, Northeast region, told The Telegraph today.

Das said the move would benefit both employers and employees in the four states.

"Now employers in states such as Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland need not come to the EPFO regional office in Guwahati for compliance functions such as depositing funds or attending quasi-judicial hearings. All such work can be done locally with the assistant PF commissioner stationed there," he said.

In the absence of an enforcement officer, the additional staff will be there to cater to employees who come to the office seeking information regarding claim settlements or funds status.

"It may so happen that the enforcement officer may be engaged in inspection-related work. In such a situation, the support staff can be approached," Das said.

The sub-regional offices in Shillong (caters to Meghalaya and Mizoram), Tinsukia (Upper Assam and parts of Arunachal) and Agartala (Tripura) report to the EPFO regional office here.

"Apart from structural upgrade, the special state offices will be equipped with Internet connectivity. So claims can be settled online for members who do not have access to Internet. Apparently, about 70 per cent of the members do not have access to online facilities in such towns," the official said.

The EPFO, a retirement fund body under the Union ministry of labour and employment, had in June last year launched a Universal Account Number (UAN)-based member portal, an online registration facility that helps firms get their employees' codes within a day.

Das also said: "The EPFO is looking at bringing down the claim settlement period to anything between 10 and 15 days or even less."