Archives-News
Today at 4.45 PM a Delegation of AIBSNLPWA, consisting of Com. P Gangadhara Rao (Dy GS), Com. G Babu (Vice President), Com. R Changappa (CS, Karnataka) and B Murthy (ACS Karnataka), met Shri J S Deepak IAS, Secretary (Telecom) and Chairman of Telecom Commission who was in Bangalore. Our Delegation handed over a letter to Secretary requesting him to clear the file on 78.2% immediately.Secretary (T) was very courteous while informing the leaders that our case is being dealt on top most priority. He assured that he will clear the file immediately.
Secretary further requested the Delegation to advocate digital Life Certificate by all our members.
In JCM a decision was taken in 2003 to grant one extra increment to those Grade III officials who did not get promotion to Grade IV. The benefit was given with effect from 1-6-2003.The order was very specific.The extra increment thus granted would be counted for fixing pension. But, seven CCA offices refused to count the extra increment quoting certain rules. Kerala CCA was one among them.
After all attempts to have a settlement failed, Kerala Circle Unit of AIBSNLPWA along with five affected members filed a case in CAT Ernakulam. Justice Mr P R Raman gave very strong judgement on 15th March 2012 asking the DoT to revise the pension of the applicants counting the said extra increment as pay.
Department refused to honour the judgement and filed an appeal in High Court of Kerala.High Court rejected the appeal.Still the DoT refused to honour court order.Then Our Circle Association filed a Contempt of Court Petition.It is accepted in the file by Court.It will come up soon for hearing.
Sensing another defeat, the Directorate finally has asked the CCA Kerala to grant the benefit to only those five Pensioners who were applicants in the original Petition. Some of them got the revision order today.
Few hundreds pensioners in seven Circles are affected by the wrong attitude of CCAs and Directorate.It seems the Directorate wants all the affected people should file cases in CAT.Our Association has already taken the case with Directorate for issuance of general orders. They have to issue a general order because AIBSNLPWA is the first Applicant in the Case.
Com. R C Malhotra, AGS reports from New Delhi:
"On 7-6-2016, R C Malhotra, D P S Sisodia and Prem Lal went to Sanchar Bhavan and enquired about the status of the 78.2% Case. The file is still with Secretary, Telecom for signature."
The Department of Telecom has issued a fresh clarification on 3-6-2016 stating that the de-linking of 33 years of qualifying service for grant of full pension is applicable to BSNL/MTNL pensioners also.
So, there should not be any doubt about applicability of the DOP&PW OM dated 6-4-2016.
The clarificatory order is given below
Kolkata Civil District branch held a general body meeting on 6-6-2016.
Comrades G Natarajan, K Muthiyalu, T S Vittoban and Ranjit Mukherjee addressed the meeting.
Two photos :
Our Calicut district branch held its annual general body meeting on 2nd June 2016.
Com. P S Ramankutty inaugurated the meeting, addressed by Circle President Com. Pada Nair, Circle Secretary Com. T P George and others. Calicut branch has multifarious activities. Comrades of Calicut are engaged in number of charity work. They have distributed food and other articles worth of Rs 1.4 lakh last year alone to poor and destitute people. In the annual general body meeting the Branch donated some amounts to the Palliative Care Society, Vanavasi Welfare Society, Nanma Charitable Trust and Seva Bharati who are doing yeomon service to the society.
Two photos of the annual general body meeting are given below
Com. R L Kapoor reports from Delhi:
The file has reached Secretary, Telecom today for his signature.
Relevant portions from the Circular issued by National Joint Council of Action of Central Government employees organisations are reproduced hereunder:
" As there had been no response from the Government to our communication dated 2nd May, 2016, we decided to seek an appointment with the Cabinet Secretary. Accordingly a delegation consisting of the following members of the NJCA met Cabinet Secretary, Shrl P.K. Sinha on 26. May 2016.
Com. Shiva Gopal Misra Com., Guman Singh and Corn. K.K.N. Rutty
From the discussions, it appears that, the Empowered Committee has made up their mind to recommend to the Government a slight increase in the Minimum Wage. No indication was however given as to the consequential revision of the Fitment Formula and Pay Matrix. There had also not been any hint about the need to restore the percentage of the HRA, which the 7th CPC has recommended for reduction. On Advances and Allowances, abolished, the Government might be advised to set up a committee to go into the matter and make suggestions. In the matter of the New Contributory Pension Scheme also, the Government might refer the demand to a committee.
On the question of pension benefit to the retired personnel, who are covered by the defined benefit pension scheme, the Cabinet secretary indicated that, both the Department of Pension and Defence Ministry were of the firm view that the first option recommended by the 7th CPC to bring about the parity with the past pensioners being infeasible and impracticable (due to the non-availability of the requisite records) might not be accepted and acted upon."
The All India Consumer Price Index for April 2016 is 271 points.
It was 268 points in March 2016.
At this rate, we can expect a small increase in the IDA rate from July 2016.
For exact information we must wait till evening of 30th June 2016.
A NEW BRANCH HAS BEEN FORMED AT JULLANDAR, PUNJAB CIRCLE ON 28-5-16
FOLLOWING WERE ELECTED
PRESIDENT : shri BALBIRCHAND
SECRETARY: shri OM PRAKASH SYAL
TREASURER: shri RAMESH CHANDRA REKHI
CHQ CONGRATULATES ALL
Some organizations are spreading rumours or making announcement about the case of 78.2% almost on daily basis.
Some of them are contradictory and confuse the readers. Repeatedly we told that we shall post only confirmed information in this website.
The Cabinet Secretariat had returned the advance copy few days back asking the DoT to make some corrections. They were not of serious nature. But it takes time to correct and then prepare the forwarding letter etc. And the Final File requires signature of DDG, Members and Secretary, Telecom.
Today Com. R L. Kapoor has reported from Delhi that the Pension Section has resubmitted the Note with all corrections incorporated as suggested by cabinet secretariat. After obtaining the signature of DDG, Member(F), Member(S) etc. it will be submitted to Secretary, Telecom himself next week for his signature.
Thereafter it will be sent to Cabinet Secretariat. The file is moving in the right path.
No doubt, it is already delayed. We do hope that Secretary, Telecom will ensure speedy movement of the File and also we hope that the Cabinet will accord its approval to the proposal without further delay.
1.5 lakh families are waiting for the benefit anxiously
Jharkhand Circle Executive Committee meeting was held at Deoghar, Dumka District
on 22-5-2016
The case is again postponed to 28th July 2016. Many people are asking why it is postponed again and again.
It is because of the procedure adopted by Central Administrative Tribunal.
Petitions against dismissal, suspension etc. are given maximum priority. Then, the cases to be admitted are taken up. Cases pending for final hearing are taken up according to the seniority.
Our case is pending for hearing. It was No 29 out of 30 cases listed today. Therefore, according to the seniority, there is no chance of our case being heard in 2016. The process of listing and postponement may be repeated for some more time.
Once we enter the Court of Law it is difficult to get out of it. You are bound to go by the rules and procedures.
Precisely, this is the reason why we did not file any case in the matter of 78.2% even though many comrades suggested that.
The Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) in the Ministry of Finance informs that they are developing a single window system for all the central government pensioners in India. Through the Window any Pensioner can check and find out the status of his Pension, how it was calculated etc . etc.
Click on the following Link to see the Announcement of CPAO.
As already reported through this medium, an advance copy of the Cabinet Note on 78.2% has been submitted to Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and five copies have been sent to Cabinet Secretariat simultaneously. It is for initial scrutiny. According to the rules, the PMO or Cabinet Secretariat should tell DoT within three working days if the Note requires any correction. So far, no instruction is received from them. Three working days are over. Normally, no Department will act on 4th day. Because it is PMO. They used to wait for a week or so. We can expect further action next week.
Some people have suggested that we should approach Shri Ananthakumar again. We understand and appreciate their anxiety. But they forget that this issue is not very important for others except BSNL retirees. For Shri Narendra Modi or Shri Ananthakumar, there are more important issues like Assembly elections, Helicopter, Sonia Gandhi etc. etc.
"BAKING STARTED. WAIT TILL THE BREAD GETS COOLED."
The results of 7th Membership Verification for Non-Executives in BSNL are announced. Both BSNLEU and NFTE-BSNL will continue to enjoy the facilities of recognition. We congratulate the leaders of both the organizations.
BSNLEU could not get 50% though it increased the vote share marginally. That helped NFTE to retain recognition as the second recognized union. There is an erosion of 1.5% vote share of FNTO.
One fact is revealed: during the last three years there is a reduction of 40648 voters amongst the non-Executives. In other words, more than 40,000 Non-Executive staff retired from BSNL during the three years.
FULL PENSION FOR THOSE RETIRED WITH
LESS THAN 33 YEARS OF QUALIFYING SERVICE
As reported earlier, the Department of Pension issued an OM on 6th April 2016 stating that all those who retired before 1-1-2006 with less than 33 years of qualifying service are also entitled to get full pension, at par with post-2006 pensioners. The said Office Memorandum is now endorsed by Department of Telecom on 5-5-2016. The DoT order dated 5-5-2016 is given in our Page: IMPORTANT ORDERS.
Same can be seen by clicking on the link given below also.
MESSAGE IS CLEAR
" ...Sri Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister wanted that all obsolete laws should be scrapped. Taking advantage of the direction some officers moved to scrap the very important Indian Pension Act 1871 which gave the workers the Statutory Pension and protection against attachment of pension by some court cases etc.
The government had almost decided to axe the 145-year-old Pension Act. But at a meeting held on April 28, several ministries disagreed with the move. This led the government to consider doing away with some of the “irrelevant or redundant” provisions of the Pensions Act, 1871 instead of repealing it. The final decision will now be made by Prime Minister Modi, who heads the pensions department of the personnel ministry. The government has so far repealed 125 archaic laws.
It has proposed to scrap over 1,000 more such laws. The representative of the Department of Financial Services (DoFS) said at the meeting that the Pensions Act is applicable to pensions under a large number of rules and Acts of Parliament. “He specifically mentioned that pensions of the President, Vice President, Ministers and MPs are regulated by Acts of Parliament.
Similarly, pensions of Supreme Court/high court judges, central vigilance commissioners, central information commissioners and members of UPSC are also granted under Acts regulating their service conditions. These Acts of Parliament do not contain provisions securing the pension against attachment,” the minutes recorded.
Only Section 11 of the Pensions Act provides this protection to the constitutional authorities. When the pensions department proposed that the rules regulating various types of pension be amended to secure the pension and hence facilitate repealing of the Pensions Act, all ministries raised objections.
The home ministry “expressed apprehension” that the protection against attachment by courts, if provided in rules, “may not be as effective” as that provided in an Act of Parliament.
The rural development department concurred, saying all social security pensions administered by it are through executive orders and any provisions for security against attachment by court “may not be effective” as the provisions will not have any statutory backing.
The ministries of environment, culture and external affairs, and the departments of telecom, expenditure and posts said they do not even administer any separate pension rules.
ANYWAY THE PENSION ACT MAY NOT BE SCRAPPED IMMEDIATELY. BUT THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR. THERE CAN BE AN ATTACK ON THE STATUTORY PENSION. THE MANMOHAN SINGH GOVERNMENT INTRODUCED NEW PENSION SCHEME BUT DID NOT SCRAP THE EXISTING ACT.NOW THE QUESTIONS ARE:
1. WILL THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT SCRAP THE INDIAN PENSION ACT?
2. IF THEY DO IT HOW IT WILL BE DONE?
3. WHAT WILL BE THE PROTECTION OF PENSION?
WE HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE THE DEVELOPMENTS.
CABINET NOTE: Please click on the link given below to see the rules.