Canteen card renewal process should be known to all ESM because it is an essential part of our life. A large number of beneficiaries i.e Exservicemen and Serving personnel are benefited with the CSD facilities but only a few people know about the vital factors of CSD Canteen smart card reewal. In this article we will came to know about these most important information about our CSD Smart Card. The major information published here is obtained from one of the OIC Stn Canteen.

Point One : Expiry of CSD Smart Card

(a) All canteen smart cards have a life of 10 years from the date of issue. After which they expire and stop working automatically. This date is mentioned on all cards less cards of serving persons (which will now be mentioned on all cards printed after 01 Apr 2021). Yearly renewal of CSD Card has been discontinued from 2023.

(b) For serving pers, the card expires on the date of retirement, as mentioned in the application form or after 10 years of life of card whichever is earlier.

Point Two : Renewal of CSD Smart Card

(a) Can be done three months before the date of expiry of card by filling fresh application through any canteen.

(b) 3 months before expiry of card, a warning is printed on all your bills that your card is about to expire on XX date. Renew it.

Point Three : Annual renewal of CSD smart card

In addition, all ESM, civilian defence employees both serving and retired are required to renew their cards every year from the parent canteen. (This is now being changed to any nearest canteen) No fresh application is required for this, it’s done on CIMS in the canteen itself.

Point Four : Expiry of CSD Canteen Smart Card

Problem is people do not come to know, they do not see date of expiry on the card or in the bill, billing clerk doesn’t tell, hence application is not sent in time or till the day the card actually expires and stops working. Then the best option remains to blame the system, trouble the canteen manager , ask him to give stuff through bronze card (which is actually not meant for this purpose and has limited quota for meeting exigencies of someone’s card not working, or to give to institutes etc).

Point Five : Entitlement of CSD Grocery and Liquor

It is essential to be aware about your entitlement of Grocery items, AFD & Non AFD Items & Liquor Quota so that you can avail your entitled facilities.

Point Six : Application for New CSD Canteen Smart Card

Application for new cards can be forwarded three months before the card expires. You can keep using old cards till new cards are received. No need to deposit old cards with application. New cards are made within 45-60 days of submission of application.

Point Seven : Activation of New CSD Canteen Smart Card

Activation of new card- is to be done in front of you by the CIMS clerk. The pin is system generated, which should be done in your presence to ensure that no one else activates your card and misuses it. This is also not followed in cases, resulting in lot of cases where beneficiary has not collected or activated the card, and the canteen staff has activated and misused it before handing over to the beneficiary. To prevent this please ensure you activate in your presence and pin is generated in your presence. Customer must insist on getting printout his card activation details. The print out will clearly show entitlement ,. If any quota has been utilised it will show that too, activation date and time. Customers must refuse to accept cards without this print out.

Point Eight : Follow up action after application for New CSD Canteen Smart Card

Every applicant is sent a SMS when his application is received and another SMS when his card is personalised/ application rejected . Customer is advised to contact canteen after 15-20 days after 2nd SMS ..in case he doesn’t receive the card/ rejection note even a month after 2nd SMS ..he must report it to canteen services directorate (CS Dte). This is the present system. The author has requested to pass this info to maximum beneficiaries and URCs so that they are not harassed due to lack of clarity.

Point Nine: Improvement in present system of application for New CSD Canteen Smart Card

Improvements in the system including online applications for cards are being planned and will be intimated to all.

Point Ten : Views of ESM info Club on CSD Services throughout the country

CSD is a welfare measure for serving and retired personnel and their eligible family members. A Wide range of product and supply chain has made it a vast orgainsation under MoD. Inspite of excellent level of services, there are some areas which need to be improved i.e Rank bias in Sales Counter etc are under judicial consideration. It is anticipated that with best in near future the ESM and serving personnel will experience the better and improved service in CSD.