Old Pension Scheme to NPS Employees selected during 2003 recruited on or after 1.1.2004

Extension of old pension scheme under CCS(Pension) Rules 1972 to the employees who were selected During the year 2003 and who had joined service On or after 01/01/2004

National Council (Staff Side)
Joint Consultative Machinery
for central Government Employees
13-C, Ferozsha Road, New Delhi -110001

No.NC-JCM-2019/Pension/NPS

April , 2019

The Secretary
Government of India
Department of Pension and Pensioners welfare
3rd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan.
Khan Market, New Delhi.

Sub: Extension of old pension scheme under CCS(Pension) Rules 1972 to the employees who were selected During the year 2003 and who had joined service On or after 01/01/2004.

Ref: 1) Judgment of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi
Judgment in WP (C)3834/2013 & in WP(C)
2810/2016 dtd. 27/03/2017.

2) Min. of Home Affairs (Pay & Accounts Office)
CRPF Lt. No.PAO/CRPF/MHA/NPS/DA-9(1)/
2018-19/797, dtd. 15th March 2019.

Sir,

You are aware that the Staff Side of National Council(JCM) is representing in various forums to withdraw the National Pension System and to restore the old Pension Scheme under CCS(Pension) Rules 1972, to the Defence Civilian Employees recruited on or after 01/01/2004, since the NPS is determental to the employees as there is no defined guarantee for Pension during the old age. This was one of the important demand, for which the NJCA has served Strike notice on the Govt. For observing In-definite Strike. However due to the assurance given by the Group of Ministers, the proposed In-Definite Strike was deferred.

Sir, at present based on the Judgment of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in the above referred cases, the Ministry of Home Affairs have decided to extend the benefits of the old pension scheme under CCS(Pension) Rules 1972, to the Para-Military forces who were selected during the year 2003, but joined service on or after 01/01/2004. In this regard your kind attention is drawn to the letter of Ministry of Home Affairs, dtd. 15th March 2019 referred at (2) above (copy enclosed for ready reference). The Ministry of Home Affairs have decided to transfer the NPS contribution of the concerned employees to the GPF Scheme and also to bring the employees who were selected during 2003 on the basis of notification issued during 2002/2003 and joined service on or after 2004, under the coverage of CCS(Pension) Rules 1972.

A large number of Central Govt. Employees in various Departments Like Railways, Defence, Postal and other Departments are similarly placed. These employees were selected for appointment during the year 2003, based on the employment notification issued during 2002/2003 however due to delay in receiving the Attestation Forms(Police Verification Report), Medical fitness etc., they were forced to join service on or after 01/01/2004. Due to no mistake of theirs’ they were brought under the coverage of NPS, thereby denying them the benefit of GPF and Defined Guaranteed Pension under the CCS(Pension) Rules 1972. These employees also have now started representing for extending the benefit given to the Home Ministry Staff for them, and their demand is fully justified and is covered under the Judgment of Hon’ble High Court of Delhi.

Sir, in view of the above, it is requested that you may kindly look into the matter and arrange to issue instructions for extending the benefit given to the Para-Military forces in the Home Ministry to the similarly placed Central Govt. Employees by extending them the benefit of Old Pension Scheme under CCS(Pension) Rules 1972. A copy of your instruction may please be endorsed to this office.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully
(Shiv Gopal Mishra)
Secretary

It is a good news for the Indian telecom industry that the ARPU of Reliance Jio is falling sharply. ARPU is the total revenue of the operator, divided by the number of customers that the company is having. So, a company will become more profitable, if it’s ARPU increases, and vice-versa. . News has come that Reliance Jio’s ARPU keeps falling. It’s ARPU was Rs.154 in December 2017. Then, it fell to Rs.130 in December, 2018. It has fallen further to Rs.126.2 in March 2019. It is a known fact that all the telecom companies, including BSNL have gone into loss, because of the brutal tariff war unleashed by Jio. It wants to close down all other telecom companies, so that it can monopolise the telecom industry and thereafter loot the people. Already industry analysts have predicted that telecom tariffs will increase soon. Now, the sharp fall in Jio’s ARPU indicates that Jio has to increase it’s tariffs soon, which will be a good news for BSNL and other operators.

(BSNLEU Website)

A well attended generalbody meeting of Balasore District was held at Bhadrak on 21-04-2019. Com.Gadadhar  Panda , District President controlled the proceedings. Com.P K Pradhan, District Secretary welcomed all and presented a brief report. Coms. A C Mohanty, Circle Secretary and A Dhupal, CHQ Vice President spoke elaborately on the issues of pension revision, revival of BSNL and decisions of Kolkata AIC. Coms. Pratap Ch Jena, Circle Org Secretary and Sridhar Das, Circle Asst Secretary also addressed.

National Council meeting held on 13-04-2019 .. discussion on important points

General body meeting of AIBDPA, Krishna District was held on 13.04.2019 at MB Vignana Kendram, Vijayawada.The meeting was presided over by Com.N.Syam Prasad and Com.G.Gopal Rao.District Secretary Com. R.Madhava Rao gave the activities report and Com. B.Mohan Rao submitted financial report. Activists from different places spoke on the organisation and membership and problems.Com.K.S.C.Bose, Circle Secretary in his address explained to the members regarding the organisational position in districts,Circle and on the All India conference held at Calcutta and its decisions.The meeting congratulated Com. P.Asokababu for his reelection as Vice-President CHQ.

Editorial

LET US UTILIZE THE OPPORTUNITY WISELY.

The pension revision of BSNL retirees from 01-01-2017 stands frozen now. But why? The Hon’ble Minister of Communications  and the Secretary, Department of Telecommunications had given categorical assurance for pension revision delinking wage revision in the discussion had with AUAB on 2nd and 3rd December, 2018. But the DoT has not initiated any action on it and are still pursuing for pension revision after wage revision. How can the buerocracy dare to take such a stand without the support of the government.? Yes, it is a treacherous game plan being enacted by both the government and the dominant section of buerocracy in DoT. Is it an isolated issue.? Certainly not. In the same meeting with AUAB, the Minister had given some other assurances also,viz, wage revision, 4G spectrum to BSNL, Pension contribution on actual pay instead of maximum of the pay scale. None of these have been implemented so far and the entire BSNL employees had to go for a three days strike from 18th February, 2019 against the cheating..

Meanwhile BSNL was pushed back to an acute  situation that the salary to the employees for February , 2019 had to be deferred. It is no secret that Reliance Jio is allowed by the government to operate freely with predatory pricing violating the rules and license provisions.ever since its launching in September, 2016. This has virtually put the entire telecom sector to great crisis and all the service providers are incurring huge losses. The aim of Mukesh Ambani, the richest corporate in India and owner of Reliance Jio is to dominate the telecom service sector by grabbing the customers of other companies and to increase the market share and revenue share to 50%.. However, BSNL is the only operator resisting the Reliance Jio to a great extent with comparitively less liability. This has embarassed Mukesh Ambani and is pressurising the Modi government to eliminate BSNL from the telecom sector and naturally the government has to oblige as it is the government for the corporates . This is the real backgound for the present  created crisis in BSNL.This is nothing but part of the anti-PSU policy of Modi government, another glaring example seen recently is ignoring the reputed Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in the corrupt Rafale deal for the sake of Anil Ambani’s company.

The cheating of workers and pensioners is nothing new and the on the contrary has become the hallmark of Modi government. The retrograde recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission was implemented unilaterally by Modi government against which an indefinite strike from 11th July, 2016 was declared by the Joint Action Council of Central government organisations. The Modi government was thus compelled for a negotiation with the JAC on 30-06-2016 and the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh gave assurances on increased minimum pay and fitment, Option 1 (Parity in pension), the only positive recommendation for the pensioners and increase in medical allowance. But the government did not honour its commitment and central government employees and pensioners were cheated. Despite sustained struggles, Modi government has not done anything on the New Contributory Pension Scheme which is proved now to be a No Pension Scheme.

Modi government during its five year term never wanted to concede any of the demands of the workers, put forward by the Central Trade Unions against which many struggles including nation wide strikes were conducted. Labour laws were amended to suit the interests of the employers and the fixed term job amendment is nothing short of enslaving the workers. The farmers and agricultural workers were also compelled to wage several struggles against non-implementation of assurances and the worsening situation in the farm sector. Now the people are convinced enough as to how the adverse impacts of the neo-liberal policies being implemented vigorously by the Modi government have affected their life.

It is pertinent to mention here about the hollow promises given by the BJP during the last  Lok Sabha elections in 2014; Rs.15 lakh to the bank account of every Indian, 2 crore jobs every year, Petrol @ Rs.40 per litre etc. In addition to these enormous damage is done to the secular fabric and communal harmony of the country during the last five years. Constitutional institutions are filled with ‘yes men’.; even judiciary is not spared. Now, we have to think very seriously what will be our future if the same BJP is voted to power? No doubt,it will be a complete disaster. The need of the hour is a secular and democratic government in the country which will have an alternate policy focusing on the welfare of the poor and common people.. So let us be careful while utilizing the franchise in the ensuing general elections.

Salem District Branch held its 4th biennial conference on 07-04-2019 at Telephone Exchange, Namackal. Com.P.Ramasamy, District President controlled the proceedings. Namackal Branch Secretary, Com.V.Gopal welcomed one and all. 

Inaugurating the conference, Com.C K Narasimhan, Circle Secretary spoke elaborately on the issues, Kolkata AIC decisions, Sanchar Bhawan March and AUAB agitations, the ensuing 5th Circle Conference at Coimbatore. Com.N Kuppusamy, Asst Circle Secretary made a special address and narrated the importance of the general election and appealed to utilize the ballot effectively so that a secular and democratic government is voted to power. A host of leaders including Com. S Tamilmani, Circle Vice President , BSNLEU addressed.

Office bearers were elected unanimously with Coms.P.Ramasamy (President) M Mathiazhakan (district Secretary) and Com S Michael Antony (Treasurer)