Not made PUBLIC so far........writes D.Krishnan, our Gen.'Secretary

  FEDERATION OF RETIRED LIC CLASS I OFFICERS' ASSOCIATIONS

President :    N.P. Bali 705, Sur, Veena Saaz, Thakur Complex, Kandivali (East), Mumbai - 400 101 Mob : 9820324213                   Email Id - npbali@hotmail.com

General Secretary :    D Krishnan No.6/1, Sreshta Riverside Apartments, Wood Creek Road, Nandambakkam, Chennai - 600089 Tel : 9176635967 / 044 42850049. Email Id - dkrishnan1@gmail.com

 

Ecircular No.DK/71                                                                           17-06-2019

Friends,    

Reg:       Off-Line  efforts that were not made public so far...

 

I think a stage in time, has been reached, when I should take all of you into confidence, on some off-line efforts, we have been making, along with the usual initiatives which form part of the normal methods for any Association.

As you are aware, our SLP in the Supreme Court has been dragging ever since the last hearing happened in Nov 2018. Dates announced for our Case, invariably did not hold , and postponements have been the order.

The Bench is yet to  be re-constituted  after the retirement of  the prime judge in our Bench in Dec 2018. A number of judges have also newly joined the Supreme Court on their elevation. Things have been in a state of flux, so to say, and our matters have not got a move on. We are now in the Supreme Court vacation- time, and will need to wait until July to see any movement of our matters.

While there have been positive developments in the external environment, like RBI retirees being offered Pension Revision, which aims essentially to build a system of compensation, based on the number of revisions missed after retirement. The factoring carries a 10% hike for every stage of Revision, extended to in-service employees. This marks a significant departure from the earlier stand of the Central Govt. on Pension Revision.

We also observed, that the IBA, on its own, gave out an indication that if Pension Revision is part of the Demands placed before it by the Bank Employee unions, they would consider including it in the total ‘Package of Benefits’ to be offered to them.

These are some positive signs in the environment now, and we thought we should also try and pursue our main demand of Revision of Pension , direct with the Central Govt. Authorities, taking advantage of the changes noticed in Government's approach to Pension Revision. We did find an opportunity presenting itself in the form of someone close to the PMO circles, who suggested that we send in, a one page Memorandum, to the Prime Minister. This was promptly done by us in mid February 2019. We received the official acknowledgment too from the PMO by the end of February.

After waiting for nearly 3 months without a response, we did get a feeler, that the matter has been indicated to the Secretary Financial Services, and that I should be ready to proceed to Delhi to meet him, after getting an appointment. While we tried hard to contact the Finance Ministry over phone, to get an appointment, the Secretary remained too preoccupied with official visits, and his availability was restricted to a few days only.

 Suddenly, on the 16th of May , I received a call from the Secretariat of the  Finance Secretary, asking  if I were in Delhi , then, the Secretary would meet me in the evening on the same day. When I mentioned that I was in Chennai, the suggestion came that I should talk to the Secretary over phone at 4-30 pm. That call materialized at 5 pm and I spoke briefly on our major issues, which were the Revision of Pension, Increase in Family Pension and Additional Pension for Retirees of age 80 or over. The Secretary listened with patience, and suggested that I send in a written note to him on the matters discussed over phone.

On the 16th of May itself, I wrote out a one-page letter carrying the three main points I had talked to him about. The same was also sent by Speed Post next day, through a printed copy, with the copy of Memorandum sent in February  to the PM.

Only yesterday, after nearly a month of sending that Note to the Secretary Financial Services, I have addressed another communication to him reminding him of our Tele-Talk in May .  It is our hope that this will have an impact as things move up. 

During my visit to Ernakulam, on the 26th May, mainly in connection with our Case on the 1992-93 matter, that was to come up for Hearing, on the 28th of May, I had the opportunity to meet Sri M R Kumar, our Chairman, in the lobby of Grand Hyatt Hotel where the Agents' Convention had been fixed for the 27th of May.

I briefed him about our off-line efforts with the Ministry regarding our major issues. I also gave him the copies of Memorandum to the PM and  the Note to the Secretary Financial Services.

I then went straight on to the 1992-93 Retirees' matter , about which he had a good idea, since he had handled it as ED (P), while he was there. He appreciated our keenness on this matter, as those officers affected were in their late 80s.

He mentioned to me that he had wanted to see the end of this issue while he was there as E D (P). He said he would take a look at it after he returned to HQ. It is understood that he is constantly away, on tour, almost throughout the month, and therefore he has not been able to get to these matters.

My own expectation was, if he were able to take a quick decision on return to Mumbai , we would be saved of the pain of attending the Court Hearings in Kochi. But things did not happen that way. The 10th of June Hearing, did happen, and Arguments on both sides were heard and concluded, as already reported earlier (DK -- 70).      More later, as they happen....

With Greetings to all      

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