National Coordination Committee of
Pensioners Associations
National Executive Committee Meeting.
Chennai – 5.8.2018
Minutes of the meeting.
The National Executive of NCCPA met at Chennai on
5.8.2018 as scheduled. In all 24 comrades participated at the meeting. Some of
the office bearers could not go over to Chennai. Com. Pavitra Chakraborty, Com.S.Rahman
and Com. D.V.Dhakhthod had intimated of their inability to attend the meeting
due to illness. The meeting commenced
at 10.30 AM. Com. K. Ragavendran, Deputy
Secretary General welcomed the members on behalf of the Reception committee.
The reception committee had made the boarding & lodging arrangements at the
meeting venue. Com.Shiv Gopal Mishra,
President, due to the late running of the flight could not reach the venue of
the meeting at the prescribed time for the commencement of the metring. He joined the meeting later. The meeting, therefore, commended with Com.
S.S. Roy in the chair. Before the business was taken up, the house observed two
minutes silence to pay homage to the departed comrades during the period
between the last and the present meeting.
The agenda was introduced by Com. KKN. Kutty
Seceratary General. The following proposals were mooted for inclusion in the
agenda.
(i)
CGHS related issues
(By com.M.N. Reddy)
(ii)
Maintenance of
Website. (By Com. K.G. Jayaraj)
(iii)
Com.A.K.Ghosh
suggested that the first item of the agenda may be read as “review of decisions
taken at the last NE meeting instead of only the programme of action.
The house approved the suggestions. Com. Secretary General proposed that agenda
item No. 3 could be taken up for discussion in the presence of Com. President, which was also accepted by the
house.
On a thorough discussions of the agenda items, the
meeting was concluded at 5.30 PM on the same day. We give hereunder the decisions taken by the
Executive at the meeting.
Agenda
Item No.1. Review of decisions of the
last NE meeting The house noted that the programme of action chalked out by the
NE meting held at Nagpur i.e. to hold a
massive dharna at Delhi had been carried out, almost reaching the target fixed
by the meeting for the participation of the comrades (i.e.96%). The house also
noted that all out efforts had been made by all affiliates and COCs to make the
programme a grand success. The house also appreciated the efforts made in by
the Delhi Unit of AIPRPA in conducting the programme and the co-operation extended
by the Chief Post Master General, Delhi Circle.
Almost all comrades took part in the discussions. Com. Jayaraj explained the latest position
emerged after discussion with the Government on the question of wage and
pension revision of BSNL employees. While every comrade agreed that the
programme of 25th October, 2017 was magnificent in all respects,
there had been a lull in the movement thereafter. There had been no follow up action to keep
alive the issues. Many suggestions were made out in respect of the future
course of action. It was ultimately decided
that:
(i)
to organize
Post card campaign eliciting the involvement of all pensioner members of
the NCCPA to be concluded by 15th December, 2018.( The format to be
written on the postcard will be prepared and sent later). It wll be addressed
to the Prime Minister. The State Units
and affiliates will collect the same and would be sent to the PM between 15th
and 31st Decmeber,2018.
(ii)
To mobilize
members to take part ln the 5th September programme of Confederation
Rally especially from the areas nearby to
Delhi.
(iii)
As decided by the
all India Conference at Kolkata, we have to ensure that all the Pensioners
participate in the programmes chalked out by the Central Trade Unions. The SG informed that the Central Trade
Unions were planning to have a nationwide convention at Delhi by the end of
August, 2018 to declare certain programmes culminating in strike action in
December, 2018. The Pensioner comrades will take part in this programme and
will organize a demonstration at all centres on the day of strike
(iv)
The Confederation
of CGEs have planned for a strike action on 15th November,
2018. This is likely to be shifted to
synchronies with the action of the Central Trade Unions. The Secretary General was authorized to take
appropriate decision to endorse the programmes chalked out by the Confdn.
(v)
There will be a
Dharna programme organized jointly by all the affiliates at the following
centres in January, 2019. The date for the dharna will be announced later.
(a)
Trivandrum or any
other place the CGPA Kerala decides.
(b)
Chennai
(c)
Hyderabad
(d)
Bangalore
(e)
Kolkata:
(Including Orissa & Bihar & Jharkhand)
(f)
Guwahati. (Assam
and North Estern States)
(g)
Jaipur (including
Delhi)
(h)
Ambala or
Chandigarh( Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J & K)
(i)
Lucknow. (whole
of UP)
(j)
Bhopal( MP and
Chattisgarh)
(k)
Nagpur (Vidharba
region of Maharashtra)
(l)
Mumbai
(Maharashtra(excluding vidharba region) and Gujarat
The respective States will finalize
the date in consultation with the Secretary General. One of the Principal
Office bearers of the NCCPA will attend the Dharna. The dates may preferably be
fixed in the second fortnight of January, 2018.
(vi)
Mass contact or
campaign programme. Feb. 2019. Mass meetings or conventions will be organized
with an interaction session in which the National Sectt. Members will take
part, hear the collective and individual grievances of the pensioners and chalk
out what could be done in the matter.
(vii)
The NCCPA will
write to the Secretary Pension and the SBI of the pendency in settling the
pension re-fixation cases.
(viii)
In the month of
March, 2019, the NCCPA will organize a Token mass fasting at New Delhi. The meting fixed a minimum of 2000 pensioner
comrades to participate in the token fast at Delhi. The other Pensioners organizations would be
consulted to explore the possibilities of a joint programme . (The date will be
finalized later i.e. after eliciting response from other organizations of their
willingness or otherwise in the programme.
(ix)
In all the
progrmmes mentioned above, the 10 point charter of demands would be projected.
(x)
The affiliates
and the CGPA Units will bring to the notice of the CHQ of the various court
cases which are in favour of the pensioners so as to enable the CHQ to write to
the Pension Secretary for its acceptance and make it applicable to similarly
placed pensioners (The date of effect of MACP need not be referred to.)
Agenda Item No.2.. The
meeting decided, after detailed deliberations of the need to file the court
cases in respect of both the Option No. 1 as also the date of effect of MACP.
The details will be worked out by the Sectt.
Agenda Item No.3. Com.Shiva
Gopal Misra explained the crux of the discussion at the National Anomaly
committee meeting. He was of the opinion that the matter should be taken up
with the Pension Secretary in the Committee under the JCM on pension related
issues. He also referred to the discussions at the NJCA meeting on Minimum
wage/Minimum pension, Fitment formula both for Pay and pension He said that the NJCA will meet again on 18th
to review and take further decision as how to proceed with the issue.
Agenda Item No. 4. NCCPA Journal.
It was noted that unless serious efforts are taken as per the decision of the
last NE meeting held at Nagpur, the circulation would not be able to be
increased. It was also noted that the
very viability of the journal depends upon the circulation. The West Bengal Unit, who is in charge of the
financial matters concerning the journal, has given a list of defaulters. The
Sectt will act upon it. However, it was
desired that they should prepare a Receipt and Payment Account to have a clear
picture of the financial difficulties. The meeting was told about certain
proposals arrived at the Kolkata meeting of the comrades in charge of the
publication of the journal in respect of improvement of the content of the
journal. The Secretary General reiterated
that it was necessary that he receives the material for publication from all
the affiliates and the State Units by 10th of each month in word
form. There had been some complaints
about the non-receipt of the journal. The WB unit was requested to look into
it. It was also decided that to overcome the present financial problems, the
journal will be charged at Rs. 6 per copy from next month onwards and the
proposal for increasing the per copy charge along with the number of pages
would be placed at the next Conference. Bank
Account details at Kolkata will be repeated in our circular so that all money
pertaining to journals will be sent to that account only. One of the other suggestion made at the
meeting was to ensure that Hindi version of the journal is brought out to
increase or widen the subscription base.
Agenda Item No.5 & 6. NCCPA
accounts and finances: Com. Treasurer could reach Chennai only on 5th
as he could not get reservation prior to that.
The prepared accounts could not be discussed at the Sectt. It was decided that Com.KKN, Com.K.Ragavendran
and Com. Sidhu will look into it when they meet on 5th
September, at Delhi. The accounts will
then be circulated amongst all members/affiliates. Com. Sharma, Rajasthan detailed the efforts
undertaken by them in strengthening the finances of their unit and requested
the CHQ to follow those. He declared a
donation of Rs. 1 lakh besides paying Rs. 10,000 towards their annual
subscription.
Agenda Item No. 7. Venue and date of next conference. It was informed that the Conference is due in 2019
and the same should be held in a month convenient to the host unit after June,
2019. There had been no voluntary offers from any unit. After some discussions, it was decided that
the Conference would be held at Rajasthan for which the ITPF CHQ offered all
assistance. During the discussion on the
agenda item, a suggestion was mooted that the conducting of the conference
being a constitutional requirement and finance should not come in the way of
carrying out that responsibility. It
was, therefore, decided that donation from each member for this specific
purpose may be collected so that the host unit will not have an unbearable
financial burden.
Agenda Item No. 8. Affiliation applications. The
applications received from the following organizations were considered and it
was decided to grant them affiliation.
(a)
Pensioners
Association, Central Water Commission.
(b)
Central Ground
Water board Pensioners Assn.
(c)
Central Leprosy
Teaching and Research Institute , Chengalpattu (TN).
Agenda Item No.9.
Constitution. The final draft of the Constitution
incorporating the amendments moved and passed at the Kolkata Conference was
submitted to the house by the Secretary General. He said that from the information he has obtained
the draft had been prepared after causing some discussions with the persons who
are in the knowledge of registration procedures. The house then finally decided to apply for
registration and authorize the Sectt. to make
necessary changes to get the registration formalities completed. Com. VAN Namboodiri Patron pointed out the
necessity to remove the words of sponsoring committee from the Constitution to
be replaced by the Central Trade Unions.
He also wanted that each post of the office bearers must be mentioned
under definitions and rules. The house
accepted his suggestions.
Agenda Item No. 10. The issue concerning the maintenance of the
website was discussed at length. It was
agreed that the website shall have the following features:
(a)
Constitution.
(b)
Name of the
affiliates and the Phone No. of the Chief Executive of each of the affiliate
(c)
Name of the
office bearers and their phone Numbers
(d)
The Mailing list
(e)
Circulars and
notices issued from the CHQ from time to time.
(f)
Important decision
of the Govt. with link to the original orders
CGHS facilities:
Many comrades
raised issues pertaining to the grievances of the pensioners over the
functioning of the CGHS. Com.M.N.Reddy
wanted the problems connected with Local purchases to be removed
immediately. He along with Com. Somayya
suggested that the hired buildings where the CGHS dispensaries are located hardly has
facilities; they also wanted emergency dispensaries to come up in
Hyderabad. Com. Secretary General
informed the house the issue of empanelment of hospitals has already taken up
with the Government . He requested all
Units to send in a self-contained note detailing the difficulties faced by the
beneficiaries so as to enable him to prepare a comprehensive note and submit the
same for discussion with the Health Secretary.
Com. President also assured for arranging an early meeting with the
health secretary in the matter.
Com.K.Ragavendran,
Deputy SG NCCPA: Raised the rate of
subscription of CGHS for pre-2016 Postal Pensioners. Comrade Shiv Gopal Mishra
wanted a note on this issue to enable him to take up the matter with the
Government.
Com. SG
reiterated the need for a comprehensive note dealing with the issues: viz. out –patient related problems, medicine
dispensing and empanelment of hospitals in each CGHS centre.He wanted the Note
from units to be received by him by 10th September, 2019.
Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri,
Patron moved a resolution for grant of Universal Pension to all senior citizens above the age of 60
whether they are Government Employees or not. The house adopted the resolution
unanimously.
The house then
decided to meet again in February, 2019 to review the implementation of the
programme chalked out for December and January and take necessary steps to make
the action slated for March, 2019 a grand success.
Another issue
that came up for discussion was the need to exempt the Pensioners from payment
of Income tax After some discussions,
it was decided that for the present a
demand should be placed to raise the taxable minimum in respect of
pensioners/senior citizens to Rs. 5 lakhs per year.
The following
comrades took part in the deliberations of the house.
COMRADES
1.
Shiv Gopal
Mishra,
2.
V.A.N. Namboodiri
3.
S.S.Roy
4.
K.K.N. Kutty
5.
K.Ragavendran
6.
K.G. Jayaraj
7.
M.N. Reddy
8.
D.K.Debnath
9.
Prabhakaran Nair
10. T.Sudhakaran
11. S.K.Sharma
12. A.K.Ghosh
13. Ishwar Singh Dabas
14. CPK Dasan
15. Somayya
Com. Secretary
General profusely thanked the AIPRPA GS Comrade K.Ragavendran and the team of
his organization for the excellent arrangements made to hold the meeting of the
Executive at Chennai.
The National
Executive was declared as concluded by the President.
*****
CHARTER OF DEMANDS.
As finalized at
the Chennai NE meeting
On 05.08.2018
1.
Implement Option No. 1 as a pension fitment formula as recommended by
the 7th CPC and Grant MACP benefit w.e.f 1.01.206 as per the Supreme
Court judgment.
2.
Revise the Pension of BSNL
absorbed retirees immediately with 15% fitment, recommended by the 3rd PRC
and approved by the government from 01-01-2017, delinking the wage revision in
BSNL.
3.
Revise pension of Central Autonomous Body
pensioners.
4.
(a) Provide notional
fixation of pension under Option No. 3 on the basis of the pay scale/pay level
of the cadre or grade from which the pensioner retired. (b) Provide fixation of
pension in the case of all pre 2006 pensioners on the basis of the grade
pay/pay level or pay scale of the post or cadre from which one has retired as
per the judgments of Courts.
5.
Extend the benefit of CS(MA)
Rules to all pensioners who are not
covered by CGHS.
6.
Increase the FMA to
Rs. 2000 as has been granted to PF Pensioners.
7.
Raise the minimum
pension to 60% of the Minimum wage. i.e. Rs. 10,800 p.m.
8.
Restore the
commutation portion of pension after 10 years.
9.
Provide increased
rates of pension on attainment of 70 years onwards.
10. Scrap the New Contributory
pension scheme and restore the defined benefit pension to all CGEs irrespective
of their date of entry into the Government service.
