Report on the meeting of the Affiliates of CCCGPA, with Shri S.C.Maheswari, Secretary General, Bharat Pensioners' Samaj, New Delhi.
Coordination Committee of
Central Government Pensioners’ Associations,
Karnataka (R)
(Regd. Under the Karnataka Societies
Registration Act 1960: Regn.No.1070/98-99)
No. 212,”Kaveri”, 7th
‘A’ Main, Hampinagar, Bengaluru-560104
K.B.Krishna Rao S. Radhakrishna O.M.Bhaskaran
Chairman
General
Secretary Treasurer
Ph: 23230545 Mob: 9448880921 Ph:23451578
Mob: 9483467750 Mob: 9448519369
Report on the meeting of the Affiliates of CCCGPA, with Shri
S.C.Maheswari, Secretary General, Bharat Pensioners' Samaj, New Delhi.
Shri
S.C.Maheswari, SG, BPS, New Delhi was on a visit to Bengaluru to attend the 2nd Triennial All India Conference
of All India BSNL Pensioners’ Welfare Association held at Ambedkar Bhavan,
Bengaluru on 21-22, Nov 2015. CCCGPA, Karnataka , arranged a meeting of the
Affiliates on Sunday the 22nd Nov. 2015 at Udayabhanu Kalasangha, Bengaluru and
invited
him to address the meeting.
invited
him to address the meeting.
The
meeting commenced at 11-30 a.m. with Representatives of many Affiliates
attending. Advisors to CCCGPA, Shri
B.Sadashiva Rao & Shri N.Bhaskaran
graced the occasion with their presence. Shri Narasimahan, Editor, Pensioners’ Advocate, the journal of All
India Federation of Pensioners’ Associations, Chennai who was present in the
meeting was invited to take the chair on the dais. The meeting was presided
over by the Chairman, Shri K.B.Krisha Rao.
Shri
S.Radhakrishna , General Secretary, welcomed the Chief Guest Shri Maheswari, Advisors, and the Representatives from Affiliate
Associations and stated that the meeting
assumes importance in the back
drop of submission of its report by the 7th CPC on 19th
Nov. In his opening remarks, Shri Radhakrishna, terming the report as
‘retrograde’, called upon the Pensioners’ Associations to prepare themselves
for a joint struggle in the days to come
to bring pressure on the Government to accept major demands of Pensioners ,most
of which have been rejected by the 7th CPC. Complimenting the Ex
servicemen on achieving their demand “One Rank and One Pension” through
struggle, suggested that the Central Govt. Pensioners should take a lead from them
in achieving their demands.
He said that Shri
Maheswari as the Chairman of BCPC
and Secretary General of BPS, the
biggest organisation in Pensioners’
Movement, has a role to play and he should see that “ isms without disturbing the movement and egos not playing a role “ all
the Pensioners’ Federations are brought
on a common platform under his
leadership so that “ we organise ourselves in such a manner that we will be
able to force the Govt to review the 7th CPC recommendation in light of the
demands of Pensioners made in the common memorandum submitted by BCPC”.
Shri K.B.Krishna Rao,
Chairman, introducing the Chief Guest, said that Shri Maheswari, as the GS
of Bharat Pensioners Samaj,
a
conglomerate of around 650
Pensioners Associations of different Disciplines & Departments, is
a workaholic and is always at the service of
Pensioners . He said that Shri Maheswari
was the very first Leader of a Pensioners’ Federation to be called by
the Pay Commission for an interaction and that in all he attended three
meetings with the 7th CPC, including a round table conference. Echoing
the opinion expressed by Shri Radhakrishna on the need for consolidating the
Pensioners Movement, especially in the aftermath of 7th CPC, he
stated that Shri Maheswari should take the lead, since his oft expressed desire
of bringing all the Pensioners under a single umbrella could be achieved
through this initiative and his dream of uniting Pensioners Associations would
come true.
After
self introduction by the Representatives of Affiliate Associations, who
attended the meeting in good numbers, the Chairman requested Shri Maheswari to
address the gathering.
Shri
Maheswari, in his hour long speech, spoke in detail about the need to unite all
Pensioners’ Associations/Federations and on recommendations of the 7th
CPC. He said that he fully agrees with Shri Radhakrishna on reviving Bharat
Central Pensioners Confederation (BCPC) and in fact “BCPC Blog spot” has already been designed which
will be available for access shortly. He requested all the Associations, to
send their contributions to be put up on the blog. Explaining the importance of
Social Media and its strength, he called upon all Pensioners’ Associations to
make best use of the Social Media. He said that a website www.pesnioners media.com has been designed with the idea of
providing a platform for all Pensioners’ Associations, whether affiliated to BPS/BCPC or not, to put
up their publications on the website which would be accessible to about
8,27,000 viewers.
Speaking
on the other important subject ” 7th CPC Report” he said that though the recommendations basically are
for revision of pay and pension of Central Govt. Employees and Pensioners, the report impacts
all State Governments and PSUs. Thus, the total number of Employees and Pensioners
effected is 3 crore and in terms of Votes it is 6 crore. He opined that, if all
of them, a big section within the middle class, come together ,the Govt. cannot
ignore their demands. Hence, there was an urgent need to unite all Pensioners
and Senior Citizens.
Explaining the salient features of 7th CPC report and
analyzing its recommendations, Shri Maheswari stated that he was totally
disappointed with the recommendations, as most of the demands of Pensioners
have not been accepted by the Pay Commission. The major demands were 1)
reduction in the ratio of difference between minimum and maximum pension and 2)
OROP for all. He said that BPS had
included these 2 demands along with many
other, in its Memorandum and he had pleaded for acceptance of these demands in all of his meetings with the CPC .
Fortunately, Pay Commission has recommended OROP/ parity in pension. But on an
analysis of the recommendation he found that the parity is beneficial only for
the officers at the top level and not for others. Continuing he said that at
the best it could be termed only as “modified parity”. On the possibility of
the recommendations being accepted by the Government, he said that since the
Finance Minister himself had said the Country’s economy is quite strong and one of the Members of the 7th
CPC has said that the impact of the recommendations is financially manageable,
and since the additional expenditure on account of its implementation , is expected to be around 0.65 % of the GDP,
there may not be any difficulty for the Government to not only accept the report in Toto, but
improve upon some of the recommendations.
Concluding his speech he called upon the Pensioners Associations
to conduct a membership drive, educate the Members at the grass root level of
their rights, develop a second line of leadership and establish their own Media
instead of expecting the Print and Electronic Media to espouse their cause.
Answering a question by Shri S.S.Ramanatha Rao, Vice
Chairman, CCCGPA, as to why at the National level, NCCPA and BCPC should not be
combined for effective functioning, Shri Maheswari said that he welcomes the suggestion and
that on his part, he would extend all
cooperation and he would be calling for
a meeting of all the stake holders soon .Shri Maheswari answered many questions
put to him by the Representatives of
Pensioners Associations on pay commission’s recommendations and on revision of
pension.
Shri T.V.Suryaprakash, Secretary, Coffee Board
Pensioners’ Association and Joint GS, CCCGPA sought the help of Shri Maheswari
in resolution of the long pending demand of the Pensioners of Statutory/ Autonomous
bodies regarding extension of CGHS or any other medical facilities to them. He
requested that the resolution on the subject sent by CCCGPA may be passed at
the AGB of BPS scheduled to be held at Amritsar on 29-11-2015 and sent to the
Government.
Shri S.Radhakrishna, GS,CCCGPA summed up the discussions
and proposed a vote thanks.
Shri Maheswari was felicitated jointly by Shri
B.Sadashiva Rao and Shri N.Bhaskaran. He was offered a shawl, a garland and a
bowl of fruits. A memento with the photo of Shri Maheswari on it and a citation
which read ‘Felicitation to Er. Mr.S.C.Maheswari, Secretary General, Bharat
Pensioners Samaj, New Delhi, in recognition of his yeoman service to
Pensioner Community” was presented to him on behalf of the CCCGPA, Karnataka
and its Affiliates.
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