SCM Secy.Genl BPS visit to Bangluru to attend 20th AGM of KPTPA 20th AGM on 21.06.15
Secy. Genl. at Banglore
Namaskar Bangalore Namaskar Sisters & Brothers
Distinguished Sr comrades on the dais , brothers & sisters I am
deeply grateful to Karnataka Post & Telecommunication Pensioners
Association for inviting me to this beautiful garden city to be with you.
Comrades ,We belongs to the privileged generation which
has had the honor of contributing to both India's independence & consequent Nation building .Forgoing
8.33% matching contribution by Govt. to P.F. and
accepting salaries which were
intentionally designed at lower level to cater to the pension to be paid after
retirement, the Civil & PSU
Pensioners' of today, during their productive years worked hard for the
development of the country with the hope that the Nation will take care of them
during the evening of their lives.
Even today whenever, need arises due to natural
calamities or otherwise, Pensioners are first to come out with emotional,
monetary & physical support . Stand
shoulder to shoulder with the administration and the fellow citizens not only
to donate money ,but they go to the extent of donating their organs & even the bodies so that others may live to serve this
beautiful country.
Despite old age pensioners make
endless contributions to families,
communities and the society. They contribute as family care givers, as workers,
consumers, volunteers and taxpayers. In fact Pensioners are the ones who have
been & are still paying Taxes most honestly.
And what we as pensioners wish to
have?
A peaceful and healthy life with
dignity. Dignity as guaranteed by the Constitution & pronounced by the Apex court as far back as 17.12.1982.in D S Nakara vs UOI.
i.e pension is a deferred wage, pension w/o any cutoff date/or discrimination
based on date of retirement should be
sufficient to enable pensioner to live with the standard he/she had been living
while in service. And that healthcare be recognized as a Fundamental right of
ex employee as pronounced by the apex court on 27.10.1995 in the case Consumer
education and Research Centre Vs Union
of India (AIR 1995 Supreme Court 922) .
But what we are getting? Discrimination ,disparities & neglect.
Ladies & gentlemen; every time,
months before CPC recommendations. Media creates a hype! "CG Employees/Pensioners
will be richer . Pension& salaries expected to go up 4times, country's
finances will derailed etc etc.
A wrong perception is created , as if
alms are being doled out!
But what we actually get as revised pension ?
Existing basic Pension+ DR+ fitment
benefit = revised pension = about 40% rise in pension for over 90% of pensioners.
The fitment benefit, in fact is part of squeezed DR . DR which govt. pays during intervening period of two pay
commissions is never sufficient as the
very method of calculating ALL INDIA CONSUMER PRICE INDEX FOR INDUSTRIAL
WORKERS is fraught with discrepancies. 100% neutralization is an illusion. This
was accepted by the then deputy chairman
planning comm. Sardar Montek Singh
Alluwaliah in his statement to PTI on27.2.2008(published in National dailies on
28.2.2008)
We must therefore, counter this media hype & apprise the
civil society of the facts.
Comrades, this time well before the
constitution of 7th CPC we at BPS realized that there was lack of
consensus among Pensioners & their Associations over common minimum
aspirations. So we went over the different parts of the country to connect to
grass roots , organized conventions, seminars& consulted sister
organizations to know what are our
minimum common requirements. We identified common issues and sought support of JCM staff side,
thanks to Com. Shiv Gopal Mishra we
could get it readily. Each of the
identified issue was dotted down with clinching justification and a
comprehensive memorandum was submitted to 7th CPC. Chairman CPC was considerate
enough to go through our memorandum & to invite BPS for initial discussion
on 23.7.2014 & then for final round-table on17.02.2015.
7th CPC as we understand has
classified pensioners in two broad categories i.e. Defense Pensioners &
Civil Pensioners. For representing civil Pensioners in final round of
discussion Pay comm. short listed Bharat
Pensioners Samaj.
We are satisfied that the 7th CPC
listened to us patiently & appreciated our view point on several important issues
such as ratio between min & max. paid to be brought back to 1:8. upward
revision of pension to 67/65% of last drawn. Full parity in
pension/ carrying forward w/o break the
modified parity formula enunciated by 5th CPC. Common multiplication
factor to apply uniformly to all, need for downward revision of age for additional pension, additional pension to
start from the age of 65 yrs removal of
discrimination with those who retire on 31.12 & 30.06,modification
of NPS to ensure that min pension shall not be less than 50% of last drawn, DR
merger with pension whenever it goes above 50%, 7th CPC recommendations should
apply to all w/o cut of date,7th CPC recommendations should apply to BSNL pensioners since governed by ccs(pension
rules) Defence civilian pensioners
should get exservice-men status, uniform application of CGHS without
discrimination such as CGH/non CGHS areas/CSMA rules, removal of discrimination
against pensioners of postal & other departments. Periodical revision of CGHS rates to match market
conditions, regulatory authority for healthcare facilities. Issuing Smart Cards
to all pensioners for hassle free cashless treatment in medical emergencies
with all India validity in all empanelled hospitals of CGHS,ECHS,REHS , State
govt. as well as in super specialty hospitals which have been allotted land on
concesation rates. Upward revision of FMA. Improvement in grievance redressal mechanism
etc.
However, they were not agreeable to
consider 50% DR merger & interim relief.
Friends, 7th CPC has almost
finished recording evidence & we have done our duty well by
representing our issues in a forceful
manner.
But Government of India’s Policy is explicit
as seen from the Budget documents. This Government is anti employee and
Pro-employer. Freight charges on Coal,
Petroleum product etc. have been increased health care budget is slashed,
service tax enhanced &Swatch Bharat cess introduced, Petrol/Diesel prices
set to increase, prices of essential commodities increasing due to crops damage on account of
unseasonal rains & hail storms. The Interest rates are coming down. We Pensioners’ will pay excess price on
essential commodities, receive less interest on savings, will pay more taxes
and will not get any tax relief, interim relief or DR merger .
On the other
hand. Wealth Tax abolished. Income tax rates for corporate assesses reduced
from 30% to 25% . Already Estate duty
& Gift Tax stand abolished benefiting the rich. But no provision has been made for VII
Central Pay Commission recommendations, though the Government of India has promised implementation from 1.1.2016.
The Fourteenth Finance Commission
projected an increase in Pension Payment by 30% in 2016-17 & annual increase rate
of 8% thereafter. Thus we may not be getting desired relief through 7th CPC.
Middle class should take care of itself says the Finance minister. We should be
able to understand the writing on the wall- "bad days ahead".
India considered to be a bright spot in
Global economy but is pushing its Pensioners to poverty through anti middle class attitude .
GOI has spent 100s of crores on Administrative reforms, e governance
and is now striving for digital India.
But in reality our grievances on CPENGRAMS are being closed without resolving.
Concerned officers do not read our e.mail. Ministers & even Secretaries
have no time to listen to our representations. It take weeks & weeks to get
few minutes appointment.
What is the way out?
Why Pensioners
who with their spouses account for over
33 million Voters & who are part of larger community of over 120 million Sr
citizens should feel harassed &
helpless? With their vast knowledge & experience they are a large section
of intelligent voters among 120 million Sr citizens voters & can very well
be the opinion formers.
Comrades , now is the time to consolidate ourselves into elderly vote bank
to ensure that no injustice is done to
us.
BPS suggests 3 C formula i.e. Communicate, Co-ordinate
& Consolidate”
1. Communicate: World has changed & is constantly
changing we too need to change ourselves. Even developed countries have
realized that moving alone is not possible anymore and have started communicating with other
countries. Same is true for pensioners organizations instead of wasting time
& energy in raising new or reviving dormant organizations we need to form
strong conglomerate of existing live
Federations and Associations. As main aspirations i.e. Financial, Social
security & healthcare are common,
this is possible. To achieve it
communication is the basic tool . So communicate amongst yourself , with
your members, affiliates, associates, MOU partners, with Civil Society ,
National / local leaders ,with Media and with the employees retiring in next
six months. Spread awareness about, what
pensioners did for the country are still doing for the civil Society. Apprise
Civil Society about their service conditions, entitlements as per Constitution, Supreme
court pronouncements . Empower Pensioners & Pensioners to be with
information, knowledge & network to interconnect. Make full use of Social
Media & modern digital technology to interact among yourself & with the
civil society to enable them to understand pensioners/family
pensioner’s issues & the deficient areas.
2. Co ordinate: Coordinate not only to seek
govt. support in deficient areas but to
develop systems which may enable all of us to act as one family with mutual
confidence, support and growing interdependence. To explain it further I
narrate a real life small story "
one day at about 9.30 in the night I received a call from a family pensioner
from Dimapur in Nagaland .The lady
pleaded for help, she was having health problem with no body to look after her,
I took her details & rang up Com. kanji lal acting Genl. Secy.NFRPA at
Guwahati in Assam, giving the details & assistance required, comrades at
Dimapur were informed accordingly, help reached, lady in medical distress was shifted to hospital was referred
to Lumding Rly Hospital from where she was referred to Prambur Rly hospital
Chennai in TN. I passed on the details to Com. D. Balasubramanium Secy.
Genl. AIFPA at Chennai who attended on the patient , contacted doctors
& pursued treatment. Though due to
legal hurdles we were not obliged with 100% success but the lady today is
alive, wkg for family pensioners &realises
that she is not alone, she has
a large family of Pensioners Brothers
and sisters. Comrades, if we have to survive with dignity then such should be
our system of mutual confidence, interdependence & coordination
that non of us feel lonely &helpless.
Share
information, technology and resources with Affiliates/Associates MOU
partners/sister organizations &members .Coordinate and provide support to
members, affiliates and associate associations. Coordinate & stand shoulder
to shoulder with the administration & fellow citizens during National emergencies
, natural calamities. Launch and participate in welfare activities such
as organ donation for the good of civil society.
3.Consolidate: Inspire more & more
pensioners/Associations/Federations to come together. Strive to bring all
C.G; State, PSU, EPS95 pensioners/family pensioners together. Inspire
sister organizations sign MOUs to jointly & severally struggle for
resolving common issues. BPS AIFPA &NFRP Palghat have been successfully
wkg with such an agreement I invite
other likeminded pensioners organizations to join. BPS today
has over 14 lac audience on Social media platform, let us utilize the facility
for pensioners' cause. We throw it open to all like minded organizations. Add
more & more , friends , viewers & followers on Social media
pages . Share pensioner's related posts as much as possible.
Due to age & ailments, traditional agitational methods like Dharnas, Demonstrations etc are losing sheen for pensioners . Let us
blend old & new techniques, strengthen presence on social media to highlight pensioners
issues & deficient areas .
Streamline & inter- link available resources like publications, websites,
Blogs, Groups, Face book, Twitter, You Tube etc. BPS has launched a pilot project
'PENSIONERS OWN MEDIA' under which publications of like minded Pensioners organizations who willingly
provide us their publications in pdf format are being uploaded on BPS website,
Blog, Face book, Twitter & BPS 1955 yahoo group.
Let us make best use of modern technology /opportunities
combined with traditional methods to consolidate ‘Elderly Vote Power’, the
ultimate weapon & panacea for all our ills.
Comrades, we are not a helpless or a useless lot. Neither
we are a liability to the society or a burden on the exchequer. We are an asset for the civil
society & the Govt.
We can still turn the TIDES. With 'elderly vote power' we have the ability to
change Govt. Even in our death we have the capacity to give life to 5 persons
(by organ donation )
We may not live to see the end results but it is our
responsibility to give correct direction & a road map to pensioners of
tomorrow.
Brothers & Sisters I request you to consider the suggestion for adoption.
Jai hind
Er,.S.C. Maheshwari
Secy. Genl. Bharat
Pensioners Samaj
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