Tuesday, January 22, 2013 Request to Sri Rahul Gandhi to look into the plight of the early retirees (pre- 1997 & pre- 2007) from Central Public Sector Steel Enterprises on urgent basis REGISTERED No. SEEA/RB/RG/0313 Jan 22, 2013 To Sri Rahul Gandhi, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and Vice-President, Indian National Congress, 12, Tughlak Lane, New Delhi - 110 011 Sub: Request to look into the plight of the early retirees (pre- 1997 & pre- 2007) from Central Public Sector Steel Enterprises on urgent basis. Dear Sri Rahul Gandhi, Encouraged by your speech in recently held Congress Chintan Shivir (चिंतन शिविर) in Jaipur that you will be meeting 99% of the people to know their problems we decided to bring the most urgent issue of the early retirees of SAIL and other Public Sector Undertakings to your kind notice. In nut shell we can only say that large number of them is financial destitute and living in their twilight years in conditions worse than those for people in BPL category. The need to take care of the Senior Citizens who had retired from Public Enterprises has been stressed by various leaders. Based on number of representations from Retired persons and their Associations, the 2nd Pay Revision Committee for CPSEs understood the plight and woes and appreciated the need to help the early retirees and observed as follows: “Retired employees of many CPSEs are left with little or no economic support as most CPSEs do not have any postretirement benefit schemes. As a measure of social security and also considering the fact that retiring employees have contributed to the company some schemes need to be put in place, which will provide regular income or support after retirement.” Those who had joined the Public Enterprises during 1950s and 60s have all retired before 2007. As a part of 1st Industrial revolution many heavy industries were established in remote and undeveloped areas during this period. These retirees had worked under severe adverse conditions with no proper roads and other infrastructure or welfare facilities either for work or life then. These persons had retired with low retirement benefits. Just to give you a first-hand feel of the gravity of the situation we are quoting an extract from Journey of a Steel Man (p. 29) by Late Dr. P.L. Agrawal, one of the former Chairmen of SAIL who has been forthright in his statement based on his personal knowledge and experience of ever deteriorating Steel Man’s quality of life. He revealed his anguish in the following words: I formally retired/superannuated from SAIL when I attained age of 58 in October, 1984, after almost four years stay in Indonesia, when my provident Fund and gratuity were released. Just for interest, my total accumulated money from SAIL on the account amounted to Rs. 3 lacs including Provident Fund (normal and voluntary contribution) and gratuity after 28 years’ service. Today a junior executive or even a skilled worker after retirement from SAIL gets over 10 or 12 lacs. SAIL had no pension scheme., and others of my generation are suffering hardship and privations after retirement, except a few who were able to get good jobs in the private industry or were able to get foreign assignment like me, but the number is very small. I was lucky to get an assignment in Indonesia with a handsome salary for six years, which made my retirement comfortable and I did not have to look for a job in private industry on my return. God had been kind to me. If Dr. Agrawal could have anguish because of the financial strains he had to go through it is easy to understand the plight of the junior/ subordinate employees who retired with a maximum of Rs. 1 to 3 lakhs depending on their pay and perks. 2. The 2nd Pay Revision Committee for Public Enterprises has observed and the Department of Public Enterprises has also conveyed to all Ministries and Central PSEs as follows: “The Pension and Medical Benefits can be extended to those executives, who superannuated from the CPSEs and have put in minimum of 15 years of service in the CPSE, prior to superannuation”. SCOPE, the Apex Body of the Public Sector Enterprises, has conveyed their views and recommended in strong terms to the Department of Public Enterprises for implementation of scheme to help these early retirees from CPSEs (Ref: SCOPE-2011/DG/2278 dt 21.02.2011). The final recommendation of the 2nd PRC is for creation of Corpus by investing 1.5% of PBT of the respective CPSEs. It is regrettable that DPE instead of issuing clear-cut guidelines/orders to the CPSEs to help the Very Senior Citizen Retirees who are in twilight of their life, confused the whole issue by issuing three OMs(dt. 08.07.2009, 25.04.2011 and 20.07.2011)each having different wordings and also different from the wordings in the recommendation of 2nd PRC. Since SCOPE is an apex organisation of CPSEs and have knowledge of ground realities, their suggestions and recommendations should have been given some weightage and consideration. 3. Unfortunately for these early retirees who do not have the vitality or monetary capacity to fight for their cause, no action has been taken till now either by DPE or by the administrative Ministries concerned even after 4 years since acceptance of the recommendation of the 2nd PRC which is supposed to be effective from 1.1.2007. The DPE has become out-of-bounds for the retirees as they do not entertain any letters/representations (Ref: OM dt 30.05.2011) and have no concern for these retirees. Since we are out of sight, we are out of mind of the administrative Ministries/Departments. In spite very many representations, no Ministry /Department has either taken action or have replied to any representation yet. In the absence of clear cut orders, each CPSE is asking for clarifications with the Ministries/Departments and they in turn are still in correspondence mode with DPE etc. As such the issue remains unresolved even after 4 years. The Retirees have knocked all doors and are now approaching you, Sir, with a hope that you would instruct for immediate action. 4. These Very Senior Citizen Retirees are not able to live with dignity now with meager amounts they got as retirement benefits. They are facing four cumulative adverse conditions since retired and are in pathetic state financially: i) Some of them retired at the age of 58 years. As a result, they did not get regular income for longer period and got lower PF(they missed the opportunity of PF getting multiplied in the next two years). ii) The cost of living has gone up by more than 250% since 1996 and continues to go up with uncontrolled price rise of essential commodities. The inflation (Compounded) is 12-15%. iii) The return from investment of their retirement amounts have come down by 33%. iv) The increased medical expenditure due to age related problems are adding to their miseries and woes as they get only limited reimbursements (even in OPD expenses) under mediclaim by our PSU. All these cumulative adverse conditions are putting these retirees into extreme hardship to live with dignity after serving in Public Sector for 30 years and above. They are slowly being pushed to privations and out of the social circles. They are hesitant to identify as a former CPSE executive due to social inequalities. The time is running out for these Very senior citizen retirees as they are 70 years and above and many are 80 years and above. 5. We hope, Sir, that by your kind intervention the ideals of Government of India which is mentioned in the Web of “Senior Citizen Corner” under “Pensioners Portal” as below, will be kept in spirit and words: “Senior Citizens are a treasure to our society. They have worked hard all these years for the development of the nation as well as the community. They possess a vast experience indifferent walks of life. The youth of today can gain from the experience of the senior citizens intaking the nation to greater heights. At this age of their life, they need to be taken care of and made to feel special.” One of the retired Senior IAS officer mentioned as follows in a workshop held regarding “Creation of Corpus for Retirement Benefits of Retirees of CPSEs” : “...these were very important guidelines and emphasized that the money was not a constraint but it was the attitude of the Management. He strongly believed that “where there is a will, there is a way” and these guidelines were to be read between the lines and with the right spirit.” 6. SAIL, a Maharatna Company and other CPSUs have not responded fairly to various Office Memorandums issued by the Dept. of Public Enterprises on the recommendations of SCOPE. They maintained a constant negative stance. Our gut feeling is that they are trying to avoid the issue and not to do anything to help the early retirees, also a kind of senior citizens of this country even when the CPSEs are financially sound and have the capacity to create the corpus. The Corpus is not required perennially as these Very Senior Citizen retirees will wither away. What is required is a “subsistence” payment (which can be much less than the normal pension for Govt retirees) to overcome their hardship. 7. Based on our long experience with this dillying dallying attitude of the CPSUs Managements our suggestion is to form a High Level Committee with Dr. V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman, NMCC who as Chairman of BHEL, Maruti Udyog and SAIL has wide experience in the working environment and constraints of CPSEs to work out a viable scheme which would be uniform for all pre-2007 retirees who are not many and who are withering away anyway. Based on your personal knowledge you can have other people on the Committee. The Committee may please be asked to submit recommendations within 3 months and this recommendation along with a model scheme should be implemented by CPSEs without any further delay without any further reference to any Ministry or Department. We would like to request you to please give us appointment for a meeting with you to explain the issue personally. However, in view of the facts stated above you can initiate necessary action immediately- without waiting for the meeting -to fulfill the central objective of quick and desired relief to the Retired employees. Hoping for a favourable and equitable solution and action, Yours Faithfully, (V.N.Sharma) President Posted by SAIL Ex-Employees Association at 8:41 AM
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:59:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015