NCCPA CALLS UPON TO RALLY ALL THE
PENSIONERS BEHIND THE DEMANDS FOR MODIFICATION OF 7TH CPC RECOMMENDATIONS
NCCPA
Circular Calls upon to extend total solidarity to NJCA Programmes and organise
independent Pensioners Programmes
NCCPA
has written to Joint Secretary Impelementation Cell on important issues
of Pensioners
NCCPA has
called opinion about organising Pensioners Rally in all State Capitals around
the date of visit by Comrade KKN Kutty SG NCCPA - All CHQ Office Bearers of
AIPRPA are requested to inform the CHQ about the feasibility of Pensioners
Rally at State Headquarters by the end of March 2016!
K.Ragavendran
General Secretary AIPRPA
NATIONAL
CO-ORDINATION COMMITTEE OF PENSIONERS
President:
Com. Shiv Gopal Misra..97176 47594
Secretary General: Com. K.KN.
Kutty. . 98110 48303
Dear Comrades,
The National Joint Council of Action which met on 8th had
decided to call upon the constituent originations to start preparation for an
indefinite strike action. In a detailed plan chalked out, there will be a
massive rally at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on 11th March, 2016
in which the NJCA leaders will take part and the strike notice will be served
on the Cabinet Secretary. Simultaneously, all the affiliated Associations
and Federations will serve the strike notice to their respective heads of
Department.. The strike is to commence from 6,00AM on 11th “April,
2016. On different dates, every State capital and big industrial units
will organize a massive rally of all Central Government employees in which all
the NJCA members will be present and the preparation for the strike will be
reviewed. The Railway and Defence Federations will complete the strike
ballot by the 2nd week of February, 2016. Each Federation has
been asked to chalk out their own programmes of campaign to make the strike a
cent per cent success. 29th March will be observed
throughout the country as Solidarity day by holding rallies and other
mobilization programmes.
The NJCA met Sheri R.K. Chathurvedi, Joint Secretary,
Implementation Cell, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance , on his
invitation on 19th Feb. 2016. The Staff side explained
the 26 demands and other issues on which the employees will be organizing the
strike action in April, 2011. It is learnt that the implementation cell
has not received reports on Department specific issues and the same might take time.
The NJCA has pointed out to him that despite the submission of memorandum in
many Departments the process of consultation with the Staff Side has not begun,
barring a few. Shri Chathurvedi has agreed to expedite the process and
the cell will place the list of Nodal officers on its website. It has
also been agreed that the meeting with the empowered committee will be held in
a fortnight’s time.
The NCCPA has written to Shri R.K. Chathurvedi on issues pertaining to
Pensioners. Our submissions are in consonance with the stand the NJCA has
taken at the meeting with him on 19th Feb. 2016. The
undersigned had participated in the discussions with the Joint Secretary IC. in
his capacity as the member of the NJCA. We send herewith a copy of the
said letter, which is self explanatory. We have included the grant of HRA
for pensioners as an additional item on the basis of the discussions, the NCCPA
Sectt. had on 7th Feb. 2016.
We appeal to the affiliates of NCCPA to get in touch with all organizations and
branches and units and the pensioners to elicit their participation in the
programmes of action chalked out by the NJCA. Once the state level
meeting of NJCA is decided, we shall intimate you the itinery. Since the
undersigned would be going over to most of the States, it is appropriate that
we must organize a separate meeting of the Pensioners Organizations in each
State Capital, the details of which will be communicated to you in our next
communication. In the meantime, we propose to have a rally of Pensioners
in all State capitals to project our demands separately either prior to 29th March
or afterwards. The affiliates are requested to kindly intimate the
undersigned their views and opinion over this proposal.
With greetings,
Yours
fraternally,
K.K.N. Kutty
Secretary General
Copy of NCCPA/s letter to
the Joint Secretary, Implementation Celll. New Delhi.
President:
Com. Shiv Gopal Misra..97176 47594
Secretary General: Com. K.KN.
Kutty. . 98110 48303
Shri R.K.
Chathurvedi,
Joint
Secretary, Implementation Cell,
Department
of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance,
North Block New Delhi.
110 001.
Dear Sir,
Sub: 7thCPC recommendations on retirement
benefits- Reg.
The National Co-ordinating Committee of Pensioners Association is the apex
organisation of Associations/Federations of Central Government
Pensioners. We had submitted a detailed memorandum to the 7th CPC
on various demands, problems and grievances of the Central Government
Pensioners. However, it must be sadly admitted that most of the issues,
which we had projected before the Commission did not have a proper
consideration, may be perhaps, due to the Commission’s perceived anxiety over the
financial constrains of the Government of India. We have every reason to
believe that their anxiety was not well placed, for the Government’s finances
are far better presently than what it was two decades back. The
memorandum submitted by the Staff Side JCM National Council had elaborately
dealt with the issue concerning the relative capacity of the Government to pay
its employees and pensioners in the background of accelerated growth of
the economy, reduced tax burden on both business houses and the common people
the reduced percentage of expenditure on wages, salary and pension with
reference to the Government’s revenue resources, revenue expenditure and the
GDP itself. The denial of the need based minimum wage,(in accordance wit
Dy. Aykhroyd formula) in other words, the bare existence wage in the
circumstance by the 7th CPC is incomprehensible. We are
pointing out this aspect of the recommendations, for the successive
earlier Commissions had denied the need based minimum wage on the specious plea
of the inability of the Government to pay. We hope you will
appreciate that the present pensioners, who were in active service in 1960s,
1970s, 1980s, 1990s, did suffer immensely as they were denied even the bare
existence wages. They suffered on many counts, as they could not provide
a decent standard of living to their families, could not construct a
residential dwelling, could not educate their children properly for sheer want
of requisite finances, so on and so forth. The Pensioners’ community is presently
concerned again with the minimum wage as the re-fixation of pension on
account of the wage revision effected by the 7th CPC is linked
to the minimum wage. We, therefore, appeal that the grievances presented
by the Staff Side, National Council JCM on the determination of the quantum of
minimum wage by the 7th CPC must be considered seriously and
necessary corrections made.
Another important issue we would like to present before you, concerns the
New Pension Scheme introduced by the Government of India, with effect from.
1.1.2014. Both the Serving employees and Pensioners organisations placed
before the Commission, rather passionately, to consider their submissions made
for the replacement of the newly introduced defined contributory system of
pension for those who entered the Government of India Service from.1.1.2014
with the time tested defined benefit scheme of pension. As of date the
Government employees, by virtue of the new contributory pension scheme
are divided into two classes viz. a good number of them receive
emoluments after deduction of 10% towards pension contribution whereas
the other for the same job is provided with a higher rate of emoluments.
It is nothing but a blatant denial of equal pay for equal work. We had
pointed out to the Commission in no uncertain terms that the new scheme was
conceived as an idea to allow the flow of the hard earned income of the
employees to the Stock market and permit the access of those funds for
the corporate houses with no guaranteed return to the contributor. We had
pleaded before the Commission to recommend for the exclusion of the Government employees
from the purview of the NPS, if the scrapping of the scheme is infeasible
in the light of the enactment of PFRDA. The Commission, as you could see
from the report, has enumerated innumerable flaws, defects, deficiencies and
what not in the administrative apparatus of the NPS, which has now
amassed huge funds and its coffers are swelling enormously day by day.
They have still not evolved a mechanism to monitor the remittances by the
concerned employers. The Commission has suggested in the light of their findings,
cosmetic remedial measures which in all fairness one should admit, will
not address the issue. In short, the Commission has not been
emboldened to make a positive recommendation for the exclusion of the
Central Government employees from its ambit, even though they have been
convinced of the force of our submissions and arguments. We may also
state that the Commission which was anxious of the increased financial
outflow on account of the revision of wages and pension did not, rather failed
to recognise the enormous outflow of tax payers money to the pension fund in
the form of Governmental Contributions. Without stating the various other
demerits of the New Contributory Pension Scheme, as it has been oft-repeated,
we plead that the Government employees be excluded from the Contributory
Pension scheme and all of them irrespective of their date of recruitment be
brought within the purview of the time tested defined benefit pension system.
Besides the submissions made in the preceding paragraphs, we enumerate
hereunder some specific issues concerning pensioners and request the
Implementation Committee to consider the same and place it before the
empowering committee for acceptance.
1. Parity
between the past and present pensioners be brought about on the basis of the 7th CPC
recommendations with the modification that the basis of computation be the pay
level of the post/grade/scale of pay from which the employee retired, whichever
is beneficial to him.
The 7th CPC
has recommended the modus operandi for bringing about parity between the past
and present pensioners. While issuing orders in acceptance of this
recommendation, we urge upon that care may be taken to provide the benefit to
the pensioners as envisaged by the Commission in its letter and spirit.
Often we find when the orders are issued, the same is interpreted by the
pension disbursing authority in such a manner that the envisaged benefit is
denied to the deserving personnel on flimsy technical grounds. We want
you to appreciate that it is not a perceived grievance but a real and genuine
one. To cite a recent example:, When the orders on the question of
modified parity was issued after the 6th CPOC recommendation,
the benefit was denied to a large number of pensioners by such an
interpretation made by the Offices of the Controller General of Accounts.
The issue had to be agitated in the Central Administrative Tribunal, where the
CGA’s interpretation was set aside. The Government dragged the poor pensioners
upto the highest court of justice in the country, the Supreme Court, before the
concerned order was amended. Even in the amended order, care was not
taken to convey the benefit to certain pensioners fully on the specious plea
that the words employed in the original orders speaks only of the scale of pay
and not of the revised scale of pay. It is highly unethical to drag the
pensioners to the Courts. They are compelled to bear the huge expenditure
involved in the litigation at the level of the Supreme Court . To avoid the
recurrence of such a scenario, we plead that the orders must specify in
unambiguous terms, that the parity must be with reference to the level of pay
of an individual employee of the post/grade/scale of pay from which he/she
retired, whichever is beneficial to that individual. This is to
take care of the situation where the concerned Government servant had
been granted MACP, or the pay scale/pay band/grade pay/ had been revised
by the Government either suo motu or on the basis of the recommendation
of the Pay Commission.
2. Pension
to be 60% of the last pay drawn and family pension to be 50% of the last
pay drawn. Minimum pension to be 60% of the minimum wage and
minimum family pension to be 50% of the Minimum wage.
In
our memorandum, we had demanded that pension to be 66.6% of the last pay drawn
and the minimum pension to be 66.66% of the minimum wage. The CPC has not
conceded this demand. Our present request in the matter is that the pension
must be fixed at 60% of the last pay drawn and the minimum pension at the rate
of 60% of the minimum wage. This is on the ground that minimum wage is
computed taking into account the family consisting of three units of two adults
and two children ( i.e. 1+0.8+0.6+0.6=3) Since the requirement of the children
can be excluded in the case of pensioners, the rational approach will be
to provide 60% of the minimum wage as the minimum pension Both the
pension and the minimum pension has to be at the rate of 60% of the last pay
drawn (or average emoluments) and the minimum wage respectively. The
present stipulation of computing the pension at the rate of 50% and the minimum
pension at 50% of the minimum wage has no basis at all. Family pension is
granted mostly in the case of the surviving spouse or unmarried or widowed
daughter. To reduce the pension beyond 10% is to heap misery and agony on
the survivors. Our suggestion in the matter is that the surviving member
of the family be provided with at least 50% of the pension.
3. Enhance
the pension and family pension on the basis of the increased age of the
pensioner. Grant 5% rise in pension for every addition of 5 years of age, 10%
after attaining the age of 80 and 20% for those beyond 90.
The
decaying process of physique gets accelerated normally after 60 years of
age. To keep one fit, after the age of 60, increased expenses on various
counts are needed. It was in recognition of this fact that the earlier
Pay Commission suggested to calibrate the pension entitlement linking to the
age of the pensioner. The demand was formulated to rein in a logical
methodology for such increases. Our specific suggestion is to raise the
quantum by5% (i.e. 65% at the age of 65) and by 5% for every five year increase
in the age of pensioner. However, the increase will have to be 10% at the
age of 85 and 20% at the age of 90.
4. Restoration
of Commuted value after 10 years and gratuity as per the provisions of the
Gratuity Act.
It is
now an admitted fact that the Government recovers the full value of the
commuted portion of the pension in 10 years including the interest. However, it
has refused to accede to the demand for a revision of the period of restoration
when it was taken up in the National Council. There had been
no reason adduced as to why this demand cannot be accepted, when the issue was
subjected to discussions before the 7th CPC. Fifteen
years is too long a period and the last five years in which the pensioner is
denied the full pension is without justification. We request you to kindly
place this fact before the Empowering Committee for a favourable decision. In
the matter of gratuity our demand is that the Government must adhere to
the provisions of the Gratuity Act and no distinction between the Government
employees and the workers in the Public or private enterprises be made in the
matter.
5. Fixed
Medical Allowance.
In
the case of pensioners who resides at locations not covered by the CGHS scheme
has no health care benefit at all. The serving employees are entitled for
CGHS benefit if they stay in any of the 26 cities where the CGHS
facilities are available, and they enjoy the benefit of CVCS(MA) Rules in
other places. The Pensioners staying outside the CGHS areas are to bear
the health care expenses from the3oir meagre pension amount. It is
in consideration of this fact, a fixed medical allowance was introduced.
However, the quantum of such allowance is a paltry sum of Rs. 500
p.m. In the neo-liberalised economic system, the administered price mechanism
barring in the case of a few medicines, has been dispensed with,
consequent upon which is the exorbitant prices of medicines in the
market. The pensioner is not able to afford the
prices of medicines. Either the Government must come forward to
bring in the application of CCS(MA) rules to the pensioners who are not within
the ambit of CGHS or the FMA will have to be increased. We request that
the FMA may atleast be raised to Rs. 2000 per month.
6. Grant
of HRA for pensioners.
Gone
are the days when the pensioner can expect to be looked after by their
children. In most of the cases, they are unable to live with their
children even if the children are willing to accommodate them. This is
because of the frequent transfer of workplace and many other relevant
factors. As has been pointed out elsewhere in this letter, the pensioners
of date were the serving employees of 1970s,80s and 90s. They did not
have a decent wage structure nor could they obtain loan facility
from the banks on nominal interest (which the people of the present
contemporary society enjoys), with the result they could not venture to own a
house for occupation atleast after retirement. Throughout their service
career they had been in the occupation of the Government accommodation, which
they had to vacate after retirement. The real estate business in the
country witnessed a boom in 1990s and 2000s, . The pensioners cannot
compete in the real estate market either with the consumers like serving employees
or business people. All these factors put together makes the pensioners to
shell out a major portion of his pension income only for hiring a dwelling
place. We, therefore, request the Committee may consider the demand
for HRA from a humanitarian point of view.
7. Grant
of an increment prior to the date of retirement.
Grant
of one increment in the case of those pensioners who retired on completion of
one year in service as on the date of superannuation had been the demand the
staff side placed before the Government for their consideration in the National
Council. The demand was rejected on the technical ground that even though
they had worked for a full year the grant of increment would be possible only
if they are in service on the day when it become due. The 6th CPC while
recommending uniform date of increment for all Government Servants, also
suggested that in the case of all employees who had completed more than six
months, increment might be granted. The issue was taken up before the 7th CPC
too through our memorandum. The Commission also did not recommend the
acceptance of our demand. We therefore, appeal once again to the
Government that this simple issue may be settled as it has very little coverage
and the consequent financial implication is very meagre.
These are some of the issues, which various pensioners organisations have
brought before us to take it up with you. We therefore, once again
request you to kindly consider these issues in the light of the justification
we have appended under each of them and recommend to the Government for a
positive consideration thereof.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Sd/-
K.K.N. Kutty
Secretary General.
