Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday issued a one-week deadline to the Department of Posts for integrating its pension services with the telecom department's 'SAMPANN' portal.

Speaking at an event in the national capital, Scindia directed top officials from both departments to end ongoing discussions and finalise the integration immediately.

"Why is it that the postal department is not using the Sampann portal? I want (officials) to meet straight after this function," Scindia said.

Noting that internal discussions have been dragging on, he added, "Talks have a way of going on forever. So, by the end of next week, I want this matter settled."

The minister made these remarks during an event marking the 75th anniversary of the Postal Training Centre (PTC) in Saharanpur, where he also released a commemorative postage stamp to celebrate the institution's platinum jubilee.

At the same event, the Goa government and the Cochin Port Authority signed agreements to onboard onto the Department of Telecommunications' digital platform SAMPANN to streamline the disbursement of pensions.

Developed, owned, and operated by the Office of the Controller General of Communication Accounts (CGCA), SAMPANN is an end-to-end digital platform designed to cover the entire pension lifecycle. Currently, it enables the direct credit of pensions for about 4.8 lakh telecom pensioners belonging to the DoT, BSNL, MTNL, and VSNL.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is now offering SAMPANN as a 'Platform as a Service' (PaaS) to other departments, state governments, and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).

(Except for the headline, Fortune India has not edited the content of this PTI report.)