Com. Sanjib Banerjee, AGS & Circle Secretary , Inaugurated the AIBDPA North District 4th Biennial Conference held at Barrackpur on 21.02.2020. Com Supriya Mitra, Circle President, Com D.Basu, AGS, Com. Saibal Sengupta, CHQ Organising Secretary, Com. Swastika Dasgupta, CHQ Organising Secretary and  Com, Arup Sarkar also addressed.

Com. Hasi Dasgupta, Com. Ashu Sen and com. Dilip Majumder elected as District President, Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

About 200 delegates attended the conference. Com. Santosh Das presided the conference.

A special convention of Madurai District was held on 22-02-2020, utilizing the visits of Coms.S Mohandoss, CHQ Vice President and N Kuppusamy, Circle Secretary to participate in the AIPRPA Circle Conference.

Com.S Mohandoss inaugurated the convention and briefed on the important issues of the pensioners, post VRS scenario in BSNL and the current developments in the country. Com.N Kuppusamy spoke on organisational issues and the ongoing four phased agitational programme culminating in the Parliament March on 12-03-2020 and appealed to strengthen the organisation.

No.12/5/2020-P&PW(C)-6363
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pension
Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare

8th Floor, Janpath Bhawan,
Janpath, New Delhi-01
Dated: 20th February, 2020

CIRCULAR

Subject: Consolidated instructions on Life Certificate and commencement of family pension if pensioner / family pensioner is living abroad

This Department has been receiving grievances of pensioners residing abroad mentioning the difficulties and inconvenience faced by them with respect to submission well as commencement/continuation of family pension. Instructions have already been issued from time to time on the above subject in order to ensure Ease of Living for them. The circulars have been consolidated and are as under:

i. In the case of a pensioner residing abroad, the following methods are available for submission of life certificate –

a. If he/she is drawing pension through any bank included in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the life certificate may be signed by an officer of the Bank.

b. An authorized official of the Embassy of India/High Commission of India/Indian Consulates may issue the life certificate.

c. In case the pensioner is unable to visit the Embassy/Consulate, he/she may submit requisite documents by post to the Embassy/Consulate, including Doctor’s Certificate showing the pensioner’s inability to present himself/herself in person. Embassy of India/High Commission/Indian Consulate may also assist pensioners/family pensioners in submission of the Life Certificate.

d. A Pensioner, not resident in India, in respect of whom a duly authorized agent produces a Life Certificate, signed by a magistrate or a notary or an officer of an Indian authorized Bank or Diplomatic Representative of India, is exempted from special appearance.

e.There have been complaints that life certificate submitted over the counter of pension paying branches are misplaced causing delay in payment of monthly pension. In order to alleviate the hardship faced by pensioners, agency banks are instructed to mandatorily issue duly signed acknowledgements. They were also advised to consider entering the receipt of life certificate in CBS and issue a system generated acknowledgements which would serve the twin purpose of acknowledgement as well as real time updation of records. (RBI/2018-1971 DGBA.GBD.No.-1/31.02.007/2018-19, dated 2nd July, 2018 Click to Read)

Must Read : RBI Master Circular on Pension payment and Life Certificate

ii.For commencement of family pension, after demise of a pensioner residing abroad following procedure will be followed –

a. In case the pensioner and spouse are holding a joint account, the requirement of Form 14 has been dispensed with. The spouse may inform the pension disbursing Bank of the death of the pensioner and request the bank for commencement of family pension, through a simple letter. He/she may enclose a copy of death certificate of the pensioner, PPO, proof of his/her own age/date of birth and an undertaking for recovery of excess payment. In other cases, i.e., where the pension is not being credited to the joint bank account of the pensioner, Form 14 will be continued to be obtained by the banks from the family pensioner. However, the condition of attestation of Form 14 has been done away with and witnessing by two persons has been considered as sufficient. (G.I. D/o of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare’s O.M No.1/27/2011-P&PW(E) dated, 20 September, 2013 [ Click to Read )

b. In case of family pensioners who are unable to visit to India for personal identification, they may be allowed pension/family pension on the basis of a certificate to be issued by an authorized official of the Embassy of India/High Commission of India/Indian Consulate in the country where the pensioner is residing. This certificate is to be issued on verification of Pensioner/Family Pensioner on the basis of the photograph available in the PPO or on the basis of the photograph available on the Passport. (CGA’s Authority No.-F.No.1(7)/CPAO Scheme Book/2005/TA/585 dated 22.09.2006)

CPPCs/Branches of all the Pension disbursing banks may be advised to strictly comply with the above instructions.

This issues with the approval of competent authority.

View the DoPPW Circular Copy

Com.K G Jayaraj, General Secretary has joined CHQ on 22-02-2020 and will be available in New Delhi upto 20-03-2020.

CHQ had already given a call to join the twin programme of agitation, called by AUAB, Lunch hour Demonstration on 11-02-2020 and Hunger Strike on 24-02-2020. The first program was sucessfully conducted throughout the country with participation of pensioners also.

The second agitation, Hunger Strike is being held on 24-02-2020 and it has to made a resounding success for settlement of the following issues;

1. Immediate payment of salary for the months of December, 2019 & January, 2020, as well as prompt payment of salary every month.
2. Immediate clearance of the dues, already deducted from the salaries of employees.
3. Immediate launching of BSNL’s 4G service.
4. Immediate granting of sovereign guarantee for issuing of bonds by BSNL.
5. Immediate withdrawal of notices issued under FR 17 (A).
6. No whimsical transfer of employees, consequent to the implementation of VRS.

A meeting of VRS retirees was held at Nagpur 21-02-2020. Com. Ashok Choudhary presided over the meeting. Com. Pancham Gaikwad, Ex District Secretary, BSNLEU who convened the meeting explained the issues of pensioners and particularly VRS retirees and exhorted to join AIBDPA which is the only organisation fighting for the cause of the pensioners. 19 VRS retirees readily joined AIBDPA as life members. A WhatsApp group for AIBDPA, Nagpur was also launched on the occasion.

Ferozpur district conference has been held at Kotkapura on 20-02-2020. Com. Balwinder Singh, Circle Secretary inaugurated and explained the present status of important issues and the ongoing agitational programme for pension revision. Com.Avtar Singh Jhande, District Secretary, BSNLEU, Ludhiana also addressed.

Office bearers were elected unanimously with Coms. M S Bajwa (District President) , Sudhama Misra (District Secretary) and Chatter Singh (Treasurer)