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Finmin Released Minutes of Meeting of 7CPC Implementation Cell with NCJCM Staff Side

Minutes of the Meeting of Joint Secretary (IC) with the Members of the Staff-Side of the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM) held on 19.02.2016

 

A Meeting was held under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Implementation Cell), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, with the Members of the StaffSide of the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM) on 19.2.2016 to discuss the issues raised by the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) {Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM)} in their letter No. NJC/2015/7th CPC dt. 10.12.2015, addressed to the Cabinet Secretary, regarding their Charter of Demands on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission. The Secretary, Staff-Side of the Standing Committee (National Council- JCM), who is the convener of the NJCA, along with other office bearers attended the meeting. The list of the participants from the Staff-Side is attached at Annexure.

2. Welcoming the members of the Staff-Side, JS(IC) mentioned that the meeting has been convened to enable the Staff-Side to bring out their concerns on the recommendations of the 7th CPC in the light of the Charter of Demands made by them in the aforesaid letter of NJCA so that same could be examined in the Implementation Cell and submitted for consideration of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries. He informed the office bearers that before arriving at a decision, the ECoS would also hold separate discussions with the Staff Side.

 

2. Commencing the discussions from the Side of the Members of the Staff-Side, Secretary, Staff-Side, Standing Committee (National Council-JCM), explained that they have already placed their Charter of Demands as per the letter of NJCA dated 10.12.2015. He mentioned that the reasons based on which these demands have been made have also been explained therein. He, however, highlighted that the Staff-Side is not at all happy with the recommendations of the 7th CPC and, in fact, no section of the employees is satisfied, as the Commission has recommended a minimal pay increase as compared to the previous Pay Commissions. He mentioned that the Staff-Side does not agree with the minimum pay of Rs. 18000 and the reason as to why the methodology adopted by the 7th CPC to arrive at this figure is not correct has been explained in their letter dated 10.12.2015. He stated that Staff-Side demands enhancement of the minimum pay to Rs. 26000 and the reasons in support of this have been given in their aforesaid letter. He further stated that an amicable and mutually negotiated settlement of these demands is necessary as non-acceptance would further cause resentment in the employees. He informed that Staff-Side has already made their stand clear to go on strike from 11th April, 2016 if their demands are not considered and no amicable settlement happens.

3. Thereafter, the other members of the Staff-Side also expressed their arguments for acceptance of these demands and all of them emphasised that the minimum pay needs to be revised. Consequently, the fitment multiple of 2.57 would also need commensurate change. The leader of the Staff-Side explained that the office bearers who were present in the meeting represent various sections of Central Government employees including railways, defence civilians, postal employees etc., the number of which is around Rs. 32 lakhs.

4. The Staff-Side brought out their concerns on all the 26 demands included in the Charter of Demands and all the points brought out by them in the letter of the NJCA dt. 10.12.2015 were reiterated. However, following issues in support of their demands were highlighted :-

(i) Minimum Pay needs to be revised to Rs. 26000 p.m. and the minimum pay of Rs. 18000 p.m. as recommended by 7th CPC is not acceptable. This would require upward revision in the fitment multiple of 2.57 and change in the Pay Matrix. It was argued that if the 10% of the pay for NPS contribution and the recommended increase in the CGEIS contribution are taken into account, there would be a drop in the take-home salary of the employees at the minimum pay of Rs.18000.

(ii) Central Government employees need to be excluded from the National Pension Scheme (NPS), which has been a long pending demand of the StaffSide. The Staff-Side stated that the Pension Fund which has been created under NPS to generate annuity for employees, would not ensure reasonable pension. Rather it is quite likely that it may generate negative returns because of the dismal performance of the financial market to which the fund is invested, leaving the employees without any reasonable social security benefit.

(iii) The 7th CPC has recommended abolition of 52 allowances without properly appreciating the justification of these allowances. The example of break-down allowance in case of Railway employees was given, stating that this allowances is given so that the concerned employees take up the necessary follow up action in the case of breakdown on an urgent basis and therefore its withdrawal is not justified in operational interests of Railways.

(iv) The withdrawal of advances, especially LTC, TA, Medical, National Calamity Advance, was not justified. It was argued that these advances are recovered from the employees and, therefore, the same should be retained. (v) In regard to enhancement of contribution under Group Insurance Scheme, it was argued that increase in the contribution from the employees was not justified and if the same is to be raised, the Government should bear the insurance premium.

(vi) The post of LDC should be upgraded to UDC and as part of delayering, Grade Pays of Rs. 1900, Rs. 2400 and Rs. 4600 should be abolished and merged with the next higher Grades.

(vii) The rate of increment needs to be raised from 3% to 5% because pay is revised in the Central Government after 10 years. It was mentioned that in the PSUs the pay is revised after 5 years and the rate of increment is also higher.

(viii) Two increments in the feeder post may be granted as promotion benefit.

(ix) Fixed medical allowance for pensioners who are not covered by CGHS and REHS needs to be increased from Rs. 500 p.m. to Rs. 2000 p.m.

(x) The recommendation regarding grant of only 80% of salary for the second year of Child Care Leave need not be accepted and the existing provisions may be retained

(xi) It was also demanded that though the D/o Expenditure has sought the comments of the Ministries/Department on the issues pertaining to them after consulting the Staff Associations, administrative Departments are not inviting the Staff associations for discussions.

5. After detailed explanation by the Staff-Side on all the demands included in the Charter of Demands, JS(IC), while concluding the discussions, assured the Staff-Side that the concerns and demands made by them would be placed before the Empowered Committee of Secretaries for consideration after examining the same in the light of the recommendations of the Commission. He also mentioned that in cases where the comments of the administrative Ministries/ Departments would be necessary, e.g., the case of break-down allowance pertaining to Ministry of Railways, the same would be considered before the issues are placed before the E-CoS. As regards the issue raised that the administrative Departments are not inviting staff associations for discussions, JS(IC) mentioned that the Departments have to formulate the views keeping in view the representations made by the Staff Associations.

6. Thereafter, the meeting ended with thanks to the chair.

Members of the Staff side of the National Joint Council (JCM), who attended the meeting with JS (IC) held on 19.02.2016 -7th Central Pay Commission S.No Name (S/Shri) 1. Shiva Gopal Mishra 2. M.Raghavaiah 3. N.Kanniah 4. Guman Singh 5. K.K.N.Kutty 6. C.Srikumar 7. S.N.Pathak 8. Ashok Singh 9. R.N.Prashar 10. M.S. Raja 11. Giri Raj singh 12. Satish Chander 13. R.Srinivasan

 

source:finmin.nic.in

MEETING OF THE EMPOWERED COMMITTEE OF SECRETARIES WITH NJCM STAFF SIDE ON 01-03-2016

Meeting of Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) with Standing Committee Members, NCJCM Staff Side on recommendations of the 7th Central Pay

 

F.No.1-2/2016-IC Government of India Ministry Of Finance Department of Expenditure Implementation Cell

Dated: 25th February 2016

To

Shri Shiva Gopal Mishra Secretary National council (Staff Side) 13-C, Ferozshah Road New Delhi – 110 001 Fax- 23363167)

 

Subject: Meeting of Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) with Office bearers of Staff Side of Standing Committee of National Council (JCM) on recommendations of the 7th Central Pay – Postponement – reg.

Sir,

In partial Supersession of this office letter of even number dated 24.02.2016 it is intimated the meeting of the office bearers of the staff side of Standing Committee of National Council (JCM) with the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) will now be held on 01.03.2016 at 6.45 PM in the Committee Room, Cabinet Secretariat, Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.

 

2. The above change in the date and time of the meeting may please be noted.

3. Inconvenience caused is regretted.

Thanking you

Yours faithfully

sd/- (Ram Gopal) Under Secretary (IC-I) Tel: 26116647

GENERAL SECRETARY TO JOIN CHQ ON 29-02-2016.

Com.K.G.Jayaraj, General Secretary along with Com.R.Aravindakshan Nair, Treasurer were to reach New Delhi on 26-02-2016 as per the original travel schedule. But they could not start the journey due to cancellation of the train by the Railways citing Jat stir. However as per the rescheduled journey, they are expected to join CHQ on 29-02-2016.

“MAKE NAMES OF WILFUL DEFAULTERS PUBLIC.”- RECOMMENDS PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE.

The Standing Committee on Finance in its recommendations tabled in the Parliament on 24-02-2016 have said that it is alarming that as on September 2015, nearly Rs.6.8 lakh crore worth of bank loans were in the ‘stressed category’ as against Rs.5.91 lakh crore in the previous year.

The Committee has recommended that the PSU banks make public the names of their respective top 30 distressed accounts involving wilful defaulters. This will act as a deterrent and enable banks to withstand pressure and interference from various quarters in dealing with the promoters for recoveries or sanctioning further loans.

The sharpest increase in NPAs (Non Performance Assets) or bad loans in the banking industry was observed in mid size corporates as they rose to 9.7 per cent in September, 2015 from 6.4 per cent in March, 2014. This exposes the aggressive liberal pro corporate policies of the NDA government. At the same time retail loans saw an industry wise reduction to 4.7 percent from 8.8 percent.

The Committee observed that poor pre-sanction due-diligence and diversion of funds to unrelated businesses by the promoters are the key reasons for bank loans become toxic. The committee viewed that the NPA problem has become ‘threatening’ to the stability of the banking system.

number of indian billionaires goes up to 111; 27 added last year.

What if the NDA government fails in containing price rise, generate employment and ignore the poor ; the rich are flourishing and shining. According to Hurun Global Rich List 2016 India has 111 billionaires. Thanks to the pro-corporate neo liberal policies of both UPA and NDA governments, the number of billionaires have registered a steep hike totaling to 111. After the NDA came to power in 2014 there has been a significant growth of 25% in the wealth of billionaires which stood at $ 308 billion. 27 new billionaires are added just in the last year. This is the achievement of Make In India !

Mukesh Ambani ,Chairman, Reliance Industries leads the Indian List with $26 billion followed by Dilip Shanghai of Sun Pharma with a personal wealth of $ 18 billion.

(Source: The Hindu)

POSTER OF WORLD TRADE UNION CONGRESS PUBLISHED

19 Feb 2016

The first poster of the World Trade Union Congress published in English, soon will be published in French, Russian, Arabic and Portuguese. We call all the affiliates and friends of WFTU to use for the promotion of the 17th World Trade Union Congress in Durban, South Africa, 5-8 October 2016.

GENERALBODY MEETING HELD AT BARDHAMAN.

A well attended general body meeting of Bardhaman District was held on 21-02-2016 at Telecom Recreation Club, Bardhaman. Com. Mhd Younus, District President presided over the meeting. Inaugurating the meeting, Com.Pijush Chakraborty, Asst. Circle Secretary, gave a good account of the 2nd triennial All India Conference held at Tirupati on 2-3,February, 2016 and the important decisions taken by the AIC. Coms.Subash Shee, Amalendu Mukharjee, Mritynjayu Kundu, R.B.Ghosh etc took part in the deliberations. 

NCCPA Latest Circular and Letter to Joint Secretary Implementation Cell

 

Posted: 22 Feb 2016 08:05 PM PST

NATIONAL CO-ORDINATION COMMITTEE OF PENSIONERS
13.c Feroze Shah Road,m
 New Delhi. 110 001
20th  Feb. 2016.
President:                   Com. Shiv Gopal Misra..97176 47594
Secretary General:     Com. K.KN. Kutty. . 98110 48303
Dear Comrades,
                The National Joint Council of Action which met on 8th had decided to call upon the constituent originations to start preparation for an indefinite strike action. In a detailed plan chalked out, there will be a massive rally at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on 11th March, 2016 in which the NJCA leaders will take part and the strike notice will be served on the Cabinet Secretary.  Simultaneously, all the affiliated Associations and Federations will serve the strike notice to their respective heads of Department..  The strike is to commence from 6,00AM on 11th “April, 2016.  On different dates, every State capital and big industrial units will organize a massive rally of all Central Government employees in which all the NJCA members will be present and the preparation for the strike will be reviewed.  The Railway and Defence Federations will complete the strike ballot by the 2ndweek of February, 2016. Each Federation has been asked to chalk out their own programmes of campaign to make the strike a cent per cent success.   29th March will be observed throughout the country as Solidarity day by holding rallies and other mobilization programmes.
                The NJCA met  Sheri R.K. Chathurvedi,  Joint Secretary, Implementation Cell, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance , on his invitation on 19thFeb. 2016.  The Staff side explained the 26 demands and other issues on which the employees will be organizing the strike action in April, 2011.  It is learnt that the implementation cell has not received reports on Department specific issues and the same might take time.  The NJCA has pointed out to him that despite the submission of memorandum in many Departments the process of consultation with the Staff Side has not begun, barring a few.  Shri Chathurvedi has agreed to expedite the process and the cell will place the list of Nodal officers on its website.  It has also been agreed that the meeting with the empowered committee will be held in a fortnight’s time.
                The NCCPA has written to Shri R.K. Chathurfvedi on issues pertaining to Pensioners.  Our submissions are in consonance with the stand the NJCA has taken at the meeting with him on 19thFeb. 2016.  The undersigned had participated in the discussions with the Joint Secretary IC. in his capacity as the member of the NJCA.  We send herewith a copy of the said letter, which is self explanatory.  We have included the grant of HRA for pensioners as an additional item on the basis of the discussions, the NCCPA Sectt. had on 7th Feb. 2016.
                We appeal to the affiliates of NCCPA to get in touch with all organizations and branches and units and the pensioners to elicit their participation in the programmes of action chalked out by the NJCA.  Once the state level meeting of NJCA is decided, we shall intimate you the itinery.  Since the undersigned would be going over to most of the States, it is appropriate that we must organize a separate meeting of the Pensioners Organizations in each State Capital, the details of which will be communicated to you in our next communication.  In the meantime, we propose to have a rally of Pensioners in all State capitals to project our demands separately either prior to 29th March or afterwards.  The affiliates are requested to kindly intimate the undersigned their views and opinion over this proposal.
                With greetings,
Yours fraternally,
K.K.N. Kutty
Secretary General
Copy of NCCPA/s letter to the Joint Secretary, Implementation Celll. New Delhi.
NATIONAL CO-ORDINATION COMMITTEE OF PENSIONERS.
13.c Feroze Shah Road,m
 New Delhi. 110 001
20th  Feb. 2016.
President:                   Com. Shiv Gopal Misra..97176 47594
Secretary General:     Com. K.KN. Kutty. . 98110 48303
Shri R.K. Chathurvedi,
Joint Secretary,
Implementation Cell,
Department of Expenditure,
Ministry of Finance,
North Block
New Delhi. 110 001.
Dear Sir,
                                    Sub: 7thCPC recommendations on retirement benefits- Reg.
            The National Co-ordinating Committee of Pensioners Association is the apex organisation of Associations/Federations of Central Government Pensioners.  We had submitted a detailed memorandum to the 7th CPC on various demands, problems and grievances of the Central Government Pensioners.  However, it must be sadly admitted that most of the issues, which we had projected before the Commission did not have a proper consideration, may be perhaps, due to the Commission’s perceived anxiety over the financial constrains of the Government of India.  We have every reason to believe that their anxiety was not well placed, for the Government’s finances are far better presently than what it was two decades back.  The memorandum submitted by the Staff Side JCM National Council had elaborately dealt with the issue concerning the relative capacity of the Government to pay its employees and pensioners in the background of accelerated  growth of the economy, reduced tax burden on both business houses and the common people the reduced  percentage of expenditure on wages, salary and pension with reference to the Government’s revenue resources, revenue expenditure and the GDP itself.  The denial of the need based minimum wage,(in accordance wit Dy. Aykhroyd formula) in other words, the bare existence wage in the circumstance by the 7thCPC is incomprehensible.  We are pointing out this aspect of the recommendations,  for the successive earlier Commissions had denied the need based minimum wage on the specious plea of the inability of the Government to pay.   We hope you will appreciate that the present pensioners, who were in active service in 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, did suffer immensely as they were denied even the bare existence wages.  They suffered on many counts, as they could not provide a decent standard of living to their families, could not construct a residential dwelling, could not educate their children properly for sheer want of requisite finances, so on and so forth.  The Pensioners’ community is presently concerned again with the minimum wage as the re-fixation of  pension on account of the wage revision effected by the 7th CPC is linked to the minimum wage.  We, therefore, appeal that the grievances presented by the Staff Side, National Council JCM on the determination of the quantum of minimum wage by the 7th CPC must be considered seriously and necessary corrections made.
            Another important issue we would like to present before you,  concerns the New Pension Scheme introduced by the Government of India, with effect from. 1.1.2014.  Both the Serving employees and Pensioners organisations placed before the Commission, rather passionately, to consider their submissions made for the replacement of the newly introduced defined contributory system of pension for those who entered the Government of India Service from.1.1.2014 with the time tested defined benefit scheme of pension.  As of date the Government employees,  by virtue of the new contributory pension scheme are divided into two classes viz.  a good number of them receive emoluments after deduction of 10% towards pension contribution  whereas the other for the same job is provided with a higher rate of emoluments.  It is nothing but a blatant denial of equal pay for equal work.  We had pointed out to the Commission in no uncertain terms that the new scheme was conceived as an idea to allow the flow of the hard earned income of the employees to the Stock market and  permit the access of those funds for the corporate houses with no guaranteed return to the contributor.  We had pleaded before the Commission to recommend for the exclusion of the Government employees from the purview of the NPS, if the scrapping of the scheme  is infeasible in the light of the enactment of PFRDA.  The Commission, as you could see from the report, has enumerated innumerable flaws, defects, deficiencies and what not in the administrative apparatus of the NPS, which has now  amassed huge funds and its coffers are swelling enormously day by day.  They have still not evolved a mechanism to monitor the remittances by the concerned employers. The Commission has suggested in the light of their findings, cosmetic remedial measures which in all fairness one should admit,  will not address the issue.  In short, the Commission has not been  emboldened  to make a positive recommendation for the exclusion of the Central Government employees from its ambit, even though they have been convinced of the force of our submissions and arguments.  We may also state that the Commission which was anxious of the increased  financial outflow on account of the revision of wages and pension did not, rather failed to recognise the enormous outflow of tax payers money to the pension fund in the form of Governmental Contributions. Without stating the various other demerits of the New Contributory Pension Scheme, as it has been oft-repeated, we plead that the Government employees be excluded from the Contributory Pension scheme and all of them irrespective of their date of recruitment be brought within the purview of the time tested defined benefit pension system.
            Besides the submissions made in the preceding paragraphs, we enumerate hereunder some specific issues concerning pensioners and request the Implementation Committee to consider the same and place it before the empowering committee for  acceptance.
1.      Parity between the past and present pensioners be brought about on the basis of the 7th CPC recommendations with the modification that the basis of computation be the pay level of the post/grade/scale of pay from which the employee retired, whichever is beneficial to him.
The 7th CPC has recommended the modus operandi for bringing about parity between the past and present pensioners.  While issuing orders in acceptance of this recommendation, we urge upon that care may be taken to provide the benefit to the pensioners as envisaged by the Commission in its letter and spirit.  Often we find when the orders are issued, the same is interpreted by the pension disbursing authority in such a manner that the envisaged benefit is denied to the deserving personnel on flimsy technical grounds.  We want you to appreciate that it is not a perceived grievance but a real and genuine one.  To cite a recent example:, When the orders on the question of modified parity was issued after the 6th CPOC recommendation, the  benefit was denied to a large number of pensioners by such an interpretation made by the Offices of the Controller General of Accounts.  The issue had to be agitated in the Central Administrative Tribunal, where the CGA’s interpretation was set aside.  The Government dragged the poor pensioners upto the highest court of justice in the country, the Supreme Court, before the concerned order was amended.  Even in the amended order, care was not taken to convey the benefit to certain pensioners fully on the specious plea that the words employed in the original orders speaks only of the scale of pay and not of the revised scale of pay.  It is highly unethical to drag the pensioners to the Courts. They are compelled to bear the huge expenditure involved in the litigation at the level of the Supreme Court . To avoid the recurrence of such a scenario, we plead that the orders must specify in unambiguous terms, that the parity must be with reference to the level of pay of an individual employee of the post/grade/scale of pay from which he/she retired, whichever is beneficial to that individual.   This is to take care of the situation where the concerned Government servant had been  granted MACP, or the pay scale/pay band/grade pay/ had been revised by the  Government either suo motu or on the basis of the recommendation of the Pay Commission.
2.      Pension to be 60% of the last pay drawn  and family pension to be 50% of the last pay drawn.   Minimum pension to be 60% of the minimum wage and minimum family pension to be 50% of the Minimum wage.
In our memorandum, we had demanded that pension to be 66.6% of the last pay drawn and the minimum pension to be 66.66% of the minimum wage. The CPC has not conceded this demand. Our present request in the matter is that the pension must be fixed at 60% of the last pay drawn and the minimum pension at the rate of 60% of the minimum wage.  This is on the ground that minimum wage is computed taking into account the family consisting of three units of two adults and two children ( i.e. 1+0.8+0.6+0.6=3) Since the requirement of the children can be excluded in the case of pensioners,  the rational approach will be to provide 60% of the minimum wage as the minimum pension  Both the pension and the minimum pension has to be at the rate of 60% of the last pay drawn (or average emoluments) and the minimum wage respectively.  The present stipulation of computing the pension at the rate of 50% and the minimum pension at 50% of the minimum wage has no basis at all. Family pension is granted mostly in the case of the surviving spouse or unmarried or widowed daughter.  To reduce the pension beyond 10% is to heap misery and agony on the survivors.  Our suggestion in the matter is that the surviving member of the family be provided with at least   50% of the pension.
3.      Enhance the pension and family pension on the basis of the increased age of the pensioner. Grant 5% rise in pension for every addition of 5 years of age, 10% after attaining the age of 80 and 20% for those beyond 90. 
The decaying process of physique gets accelerated normally after 60 years of age.  To keep one fit, after the age of 60, increased expenses on various counts are needed.  It was in recognition of this fact that the earlier Pay Commission suggested to calibrate the pension entitlement linking to the age of the pensioner.  The demand was formulated to rein in a logical methodology for such increases.  Our specific suggestion is to raise the quantum by5% (i.e. 65% at the age of 65) and by 5% for every five year increase in the age of pensioner.  However, the increase will have to be 10% at the age of 85 and 20% at the age of 90.
4.      Restoration of Commuted value after 10 years and gratuity as per the provisions of the Gratuity Act.      
It is now an admitted fact that the Government recovers the full value of the commuted portion of the pension in 10 years including the interest. However, it has refused to accede to the demand for a revision of the period of restoration when it was taken up in the National Council.    There had been no reason adduced as to why this demand cannot be accepted, when the issue was subjected to discussions before the 7th CPC.  Fifteen years is too long a period and the last five years in which the pensioner is denied the full pension is without justification. We request you to kindly place this fact before the Empowering Committee for a favourable decision. In the matter of gratuity our  demand is that the Government must adhere to the provisions of the Gratuity Act and no distinction between the Government employees and the workers in the Public or private enterprises be made in the matter.
5.      Fixed Medical Allowance.
In the case of pensioners who resides at locations not covered by the CGHS scheme has no health care benefit at all.  The serving employees are entitled for CGHS benefit  if they stay in any of the 26 cities where the CGHS facilities are available, and they enjoy the benefit of CVCS(MA) Rules  in other places. The Pensioners staying outside the CGHS areas  are to bear the health care expenses from the3oir meagre pension amount.   It is in consideration of this fact, a fixed medical allowance was introduced.  However, the quantum of such allowance is a paltry sum of  Rs. 500 p.m.  In the neo-liberalised economic system, the administered price mechanism barring in the case of a few medicines, has been dispensed with,  consequent upon which is the exorbitant prices of medicines in the market.      The pensioner is not able to afford the prices of medicines.  Either the  Government must come forward to bring in the application of CCS(MA) rules to the pensioners who are not within the ambit of CGHS or the FMA will have to be increased.  We request that the FMA may atleast be raised to Rs. 2000 per month.
6.      Grant of HRA for pensioners.
Gone are the days when the pensioner can expect to be looked after by their children.  In most of the cases, they are unable to live with their children even if the children are willing to accommodate them.  This is because of the frequent transfer of workplace and many other relevant factors.  As has been pointed out elsewhere in this letter, the pensioners of date were the serving employees of 1970s,80s and 90s.  They did not have a decent wage structure nor could they  obtain  loan facility from the banks on nominal interest (which the people of the present contemporary society enjoys), with the result they could not venture to own a house for occupation atleast after retirement.  Throughout their service career they had been in the occupation of the Government accommodation, which they had to vacate after retirement.  The real estate business in the country witnessed a boom in 1990s and 2000s, .  The pensioners cannot compete in the real estate market either with the consumers like serving employees or business people. All these factors put together makes the pensioners to shell out a major portion of his pension income only for hiring a dwelling place.  We, therefore, request  the Committee may consider the demand for HRA  from a humanitarian point of view.
7.      Grant of an increment prior to the date of retirement.
Grant of one increment in the case of those pensioners who retired on completion of one year in service as on the date of superannuation had been the demand the staff side placed before the Government for their consideration in the National Council.  The demand was rejected on the technical ground that even though they had worked for a full year the grant of increment would be possible only if they are in service on the day when it become due.  The 6th CPC while recommending uniform date of increment for all Government Servants, also suggested that in the case of all employees who had completed more than six months, increment might be granted.  The issue was taken up before the 7th CPC too through our memorandum. The Commission also did not recommend the acceptance of our demand.  We therefore, appeal once again to the Government that this simple issue may be settled as it has very little coverage and the consequent financial implication is very meagre.
            These are some of the issues, which various pensioners organisations have brought before us  to take it up with you.  We therefore, once again request you to kindly consider these issues in the light of the justification we have appended under each of them and recommend to the Government for a positive consideration thereof.
            Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Sd/-
K.K.N. Kutty
Secretary General.

GENERAL SECRETARY WILL JOIN CHQ ON 26-02-2016

Com.K.G.Jayaraj, General Secretary is scheduled to join the CHQ on 26-02-2016.  He along with Com.R.Aravindakshan Nair, the newly elected Treasurer may start their journey  on 24-02-2016 to New Delhi by the Kochuveli- Amritsar Express if it is not cancelled due to the Jat stir in Haryana.  Com.R.Aravindakshan Nair will return on 02-03-2016 and General Secretary would be available at CHQ upto 15-03-2016.