PENSIONERS
PROTEST ON 16-03-2017
For the first time in the recent past,
Pensioners’ Associations affiliated to the Coordination Committee of Central
Government Pensioners’ Association, Karnataka held an impressive demonstration
in Bengaluru on 16-3-2017 in solidarity with the Central Government Employees
who were on strike under the banner of
Confederation of CG Employees and Workers demanding acceptance of Charter of
Demands having 21 demands which included demands concerning Pensioners also The
important demands concerning Pensioners included in the charter are:
1.
Implementation
of Option I, the only positive recommendation of 7th Central Pay
Commission for pre-2016 Pensioners.
2.
Implementation
of the 7th CPC recommendations to Pensioners of Autonomous bodies
and
3.
Cash
less medical treatment to all Central Govt Employees and Pensioners in all
Government and recognised Private Hospitals.
The Central cabinet had accepted both the
options I & II recommended by the Pay Commission on revision of pension of
pre-2016 Pensioners with a rider of examining the ‘feasibility’ of
implementation of option-1 by a Committee constituted for the purpose. The Committee headed by the Secretary
Department of Pension & PW, has reportedly recommended rejection of option-
I and has suggested a new formula based on parity in pension recommended by 5th
CPC. Staff side and Pensioners’ Associations including Karnataka IA & AD
Pensioners’ Association, an affiliate of CCCGPAs, Karnataka had demanded that
the new formula suggested by the Committee, can be considered as another option
(3rd option) in addition to the other two options recommended by the
7th CPC. The new formula,
though may be advantageous to Pensioners who had been promoted to higher posts
at the fag end of their service, it may not benefit a large numbers of Pensioners
who had retired post 2006 after earning several increments in the pay scale
from which they had retired. Keeping all these facts in view, Confederation of
CG Employees and Workers included the issue of implementation of Option I in its
Charter of demands for strike.
Government of India, vide its resolution
dated 4th August 2016, accepted the recommendations of the 7th
Central Pay Commission on pensionery benefits and all the Central Govt Civil
Pensioners have been granted the benefits of revised pension with retrospective
effect from 1-1- 2016 and the arrears of pension due was also paid to them on
31-8- 2016 along with their revised pension for the month of August 2016. But,
in spite of elapse of 7 months, the benefits of 7th CPC
recommendations have not yet been extended
to Pensioners of Statutory & Autonomous bodies like Coffee Board,
Rubber Board, Tea Board, Spices Board
Tobacco Board, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan , Khadi & Village
Industries Commission, Central Silk Board and National Council of Science
Museum.
All these Autonomous bodies were
constituted by Acts of Parliament and they have been following the Service
Rules and Pension Rules framed by the Central Govt as amended from time to time.
Modifications to CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 introduced in the past on the
recommendations of Central Pay Commissions were extended by the Autonomous
bodies to their Employees and Pensioners; age related additional pension
recommended by 6th CPC, is an example. The inordinate delay in implementation of 7th CPC benefits
to them was taken up by the CCCGPAs with
the PMO in Nov 2016 and the Confederation of CG Employees & Workers was
also requested to include this demand in
the Charter of Demands. Though Orders were issued on 13-1-2017 and 10-2-2017,
the provisions of DoP&PW OM dated 4-8-2016 on revision of pension of
pre-2016 pensioners, have not yet been extended to the Pensioners of Autonomous
bodies. Even the increase in Dearness Relief due from 1-7-2016 has not been
paid to them.
The Management Committee of CCCGPAs,
Karnataka in its meeting held on 20-2-2017 decided to hold a demonstration on
16-3-2017 to extend solidarity to the Striking Central Employees and to urge
the Govt to accept the above said demands of Pensioners.
In the demonstration held at Freedom
Park, Bengaluru, about 12 Pensioners’ Associations affiliated to CCCGPAs and
about 250 Pensioners were present. A galaxy of trade union leaders, past &
present, extended their support to the Pensioners by their presence in the
venue throughout the proceedings. As a gesture of comradeship, many serving
employees especially from the RMS, Postal and AGs who were on strike, joined
the Pensioners in the demonstration.
Sri S.Radhakrishna , General
secretary, CCCGPAs after welcoming all those present in the venue ,spoke about
the demands and the unhelpful attitude of the Govt. in resolution of the
grievances of the Employees in general and the Pensioners in particular, which
has compelled even the Pensioners to resort to agitations to get their just
demands accepted by the Govt. He was apprehensive about acceptance of the new
pension revision formula reportedly suggested by the Pension Committee in place
of Option-1 recommended by the 7th CPC.
Sri K B Krishna Rao,
Chairman, CCCGPAs expressed his happiness over the presence of many veteran
leaders of P&T Trade Union Movement in the venue, some of whom despite
their advanced age, responded to the call of CCCGPAs and were participating in
the demonstration. He spoke in detail on the demands, the action taken by
CCCGPAs and the response of the Department of Pension, Dept of Expenditure and
the PMO on the memoranda submitted to them.
Sri P.S.Prasad, General
Secretary, Confederation
of CG Employees and Workers, Karnataka Unit who addressed the gathering,
extended Confederation’s support to the Pensioners and informed that the strike
was successful in the State with the participation of Employees of many Central
Departments in the strike.
Sri A.Srinivasa, Circle Secretary, All
India RMS&MMS Employees’ Union Group-C, Karnataka extending his greetings
informed that the strike in RMS offices in the State was near total and some of
the offices are closed. He was glad that a good number of Pensioners were
participating in the demonstration.
Sri N.Bhaskaran, a veteran P&T Trade
union Leader, former Circle Secretary, AIRMSEU, Karnataka, who is the founder
of KP&TPA & CCCGPAs, was reminiscent of the strikes that took place in 1960
& 68 and spoke about the sacrifices of the Trade Union Leaders of his times
who were victimised for leading Strikes.
Sri G.Babu President. KP&TPA, and
Vice President AIBSNLPWA. who was in the fore front of DoT & BSNL Employees
Unions in 1960s and1970s and lead many
employees struggles while he was in service and is now closely
associated with many Educational, Social and Cultural organisations, addressed
the gathering and extended his support to the striking Employees & Pensioners.
Sri Changappa, Circle Secretary,
AIBSNLPWA, Karnataka, said that the Govt’s intention is to put an end to
payment of pension to ever increasing number of Pensioners and with the
introduction of contributory pension scheme, the National Pension System from
1-1-2004, which by no means is beneficial and does not ensure even a minimum
guaranteed pension, must be scrapped. He thanked CCCGPAs for championing the
cause of BSNL Pensioners before the 7th CPC.
Sri H S Manjunath, former Circle
Secretary, AIRMSEU, Group-C, Karnataka, speaking about the importance of
Employees Unions and Pensioners’ Associations in achieving their demands lauded
the efforts of CCCGPAs ,Karnataka in focusing
attention on the demands of Pensioners
and for holding demonstration in pursuance of their demands.
Sri A N Balaram, President, Coffee board
Pensioners’ Association, a nonagenarian expressed his anguish over the
inordinate delay in implementation of 7th CPC recommendations to
Pensioners of Autonomous bodies and opined that seeking judicial intervention is not advisable at this stage.
The following representatives of the
Affiliate Pensioners’ Associations addressed the gathering.
Shri
M Ganesh Rao Vice President Karnataka IA & AD Pensioners Association, Sri P
V R Murthy, Vice Chairman CCCGPAs and Secretary, Retired railway officers’ Association,
Sri. Mirza Naseem Akthar Secretary Karnataka Khadhi & Village Industries
Commission Pensioners’ Association Sri B B Poddar, Jt. Secretary, Karnataka
Central Govt. Pensioners’ Association, Sri O.K.Suryanarayana, Secretary, IIMB Pensioners Welfare
Association, Dr.
S. Raje Urs, President, Central Silk Board Pensioners’ Association Sri
Sadananda, Treasurer, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangatan Retired Employees’ Association, Sri.C. S. Krishnegowda, Secretary, N.C.S.M.
Pensioners’ Welfare Association
Sri TV Suryaprakash, Jt. Secretary,
CCCGPAs and Secretary Coffee Board Pensioners’ Association ,who had made all
the arrangements for holding the demonstration at freedom park and had
coordinated with all the Pensioners’ Associations to ensure presence of a good number
of Pensioners and Representatives of Associations, in his speech
explained the untiring efforts made by the
Associations of Autonomous bodies since August 2016 and emphasised on
the need to consolidate the strength of Associations further to achieve their
justified demands .He thanked the
Confederation of CG Employees & Works, CCCGPAs Karnataka , BPS &
NCCCPA for championing the cause of
Pensioners .The demonstration ended at 1-30 p.m. after vote of thanks proposed
by Sri Suryaprakash.
The
following Resolutions were passed unanimously
Resolution
-1
Pensioners’ Associations affiliated to the
Coordination Committee of Central Government Pensioners’ Association, Karnataka
in the Protest Demonstration held on 16th March 2017 at Freedom
Park, Bengaluru ,here by resolve to strongly urge the Government of India to
implement Option-1 recommended by the 7th
CPC in para 10.1.67 of its report on
revision of pension of pre-2016 Pensioners and accepted by the Govt. vide its resolution dated 4th August,
2016 and to consider the new formula
reported to have been suggested by the Committee constituted to examine the
feasibility of implementation of option-1, as an additional option(option-3).
Resolution -2
Pensioners’ Associations affiliated to the
Coordination Committee of Central Government Pensioners’ Association, Karnataka
in the Protest Demonstration held on 16th March 2017 at Freedom
Park, Bengaluru , having
taken notice of the inordinate delay in extension of the provisions of
Department of Pension and Pensioners’
Welfare OM dated 4.8.2016 which was issued for implementation of the
recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission on revision of pension of pre-2016 Central
Civil Pensioners, TO THE PENSIONERS OF
STATUTORY/ AUTONOMOUS BODIES , here by resolve to strongly urge the Government of India to
immediately order implementation of the
7th CPC recommendations on pension to the pre-2016 Pensioners of Statutory/
Autonomous bodies without any further delay
Resolution -3
Pensioners’ Associations affiliated to the
Coordination Committee of Central Government Pensioners’ Association, Karnataka
in the Protest Demonstration held on 16th March 2017 at Freedom
Park, Bengaluru , having
taken notice of the inordinate delay in extension of the provisions of
Department of Pension and Pensioners’
Welfare OM dated 6.4.2016 granting full pension to pre-2006 Pensioners without
any pro-rata reduction in pension for less than 33 years of service issued
in respect of pre-2006 Central Civil Pensioners, TO THE PENSIONERS OF STATUTORY/ AUTONOMOUS BODIES , here by resolves to strongly
urge the Government of India to immediately
order implementation of the provisions of the OM dated 6-4-2016 ibid to
thepre-2016 Pensioners of Statutory/ Autonomous bodies without any further delay
