CBPRO DELEGATION MEETS HON’BLE FINANCE MINISTER - MEETING OF CONSTITUENTS OF CBPRO AT DELHI ON 27.04.2016

We are reproducing hereunder circular no. 005/2016 dated 27.04.2016 issued by Joint Conveners of CBPRO and  the copy of memorandum submitted by leaders to Union Finance Minister for his kind consideration.
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Circular 005/2016 Dated: 27.04.2016
To all the Constituents of CBPRO
Dear Comrades,

CBPRO DELEGATION MEETS HON’BLE FINANCE MINISTER - MEETING OF  CONSTITUENTS OF CBPRO AT DELHI ON 27.04.2016

Principal Office Bearers of Constituents of CBPRO along with their other important Office Bearers assembled at YMCA Tourist Hostel, New Delhi today for the CBPRO meeting. Leaders from SBI Pensioners’ Federation, AIBPARC, RBONC, AIRBEA and Leaders from the newly joined Forum of Retired Bank Employees participated in the meeting. Com R.N. Banerjee, President of SBI Pensioners’ Federation presided over the meeting. The Joint Conveners Com A. Ramesh Babu and Com. K.V. Acharya presented the Joint Conveners report detailing various developments that have taken place after the last meeting at Kolkata. All the Leaders of various Constituents warmly welcomed the entry of Forum of Retired Bank employees (FORBE) into CBPRO. The FORBE was represented by Com. M.D. Deshpande, President, Com. A.N. MadhuSudan, Vice President and Com. S.V. Chaudhari, Vice President. Com R.N.Banerjee congratulated the CBPRO Constituents for making the Jantar Mantar Dharna on 11.12.2015 a memorable success and particularly complimented the Joint Conveners for organizing such a wonderful Dharna programme. Com. Shantha Raju, Vice President of SBI Pensioners’ Federation gave lot of inputs in regard to bringing larger unity of all the Retiree Organisations and the issues on which we have to focus and carry on the struggles at State and District levels by coordinating various organizations at the grass root level. His rich experience in the field of Bank Officers’ Movement as well as Convener of UFBU during his tenure as General Secretary of AIBOC benefited the course of the meeting.

1 The hall mark of the meeting is the culmination of a purposeful meeting with Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Finance Minister, Government of India. Halfway the meeting CBPRO Delegation consisting of Com. R.N. Banerjee, Com. A.Ramesh Babu, Com. K.V. Acharya, Com. Shanta Raju and Com. M.D. Deshpande had to proceed to Parliament House to meet the Hon’ble Finance Minister. In spite of a very busy Parliament Session the Hon’ble Finance Minster gave the audience to the CBPRO Delegation who also submitted a representation detailing the Pensioners’ and Retirees long pending issues. The delegation had also the privilege of meeting and requesting Shri Prakash Javadekar, Hon’ble Union Minister who happened to be present with the Hon’ble Finance Minister. Hon’ble Prakash Javadekar warmly recalled the requests made by us in our earlier meetings mainly regarding Pension Updation, Family Pension and Uniform 100% DA to all Retirees and endorsed ourrequest to Hon’ble Finance Minister. The Delegation also met Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, Hon’ble Union Minister, who also assured the Delegation to help us. CBPRO is extremely thankful to Hon’ble Ministers not only for giving an  opportunity to meet them but also showing their warm response to our issues. We hope and wish that this development will make a far reaching favourable effect in respect of our issues.



The CBPRO met again after lunch and discussed the details about our meeting with the Hon’ble Finance Minister. It was also unanimously decided to further strengthen The CBPRO by calling upon all Retirees’ Organisations to come together under the umbrella of CBPRO and facilitate proper and meaningful dialogue with the IBA. The following action programmes were suggested and unanimously accepted:

1. Set up coordination bodies under CBPRO at State and District levels.
2. Hold meetings across various centers to involve Bank Pensioners and Retirees fully with the struggle to end discriminations against Bank Pensioners and Retirees.
3. Delegation of CBPRO to meet CEO of IBA again within a month.
4. To meet Chairman of IBA by CBPRO delegation.
5. To collect details about the structured meetings with the Retirees’ Organisations by all the Banks as per directions of IBA.
6. To urge upon IBA to hold structured meetings at Industry level with CBPRO on the same line and sprit of the communication sent by IBA to various Member Banks.
7. To further seek support from UFBU and its constituents.
8. To hold meetings of CBPRO thrice in a year and on urgent basis as and when necessary.
9. To hold the next meeting of the constituents of CBPRO at Chennai tentatively in the month of August.
10. To further highlight the issues of Bank Pensioners and Retirees at every level of power centers.

2 Comrades, it was a very purposeful meeting with active participation by leaders of various Constituents of CBPRO and we are confident that we are moving in the right direction and succeed in getting the Bank Pensioners issues resolved fully.

With warm regards,

Yours Comradely,

A.Ramesh Babu   K.V.Acharya

Joint Conveners

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Dated: 27.04.2016

Shri Arun Jaitley,
Hon’ble Finance Minister,
Government of India,
Ministry of Finance,
North Block, New Delhi 110001

Respected Sir,

SUB: REQUEST FOR RESOLUTION OF LONG PENDING ISSUES OF BANK PENSIONERS AND RETIREES.

We request your good self to kindly refer to our various representations in regard to the Bank Pensioners’ and Retirees issues. We have also represented to Indian Banks’ Association and submitted a memorandum when we met IBA in a delegation at Mumbai on 10.02.2016. We represent the Bank Retirees’ Organisations representing all the Bank Pensioners and Retirees. We hope and wish that this coordinated body i.e. Coordination of Bank Pensioners’ and Retirees Organisatons will facilitate dialogues with Bank Pensioners and Retirees as a body and help in resolving the issues with the urgency that is required. It is again with lots of hopes we are approaching your good self so that you can give necessary directions to IBA to resolve the issues at the earliest. We briefly mention here under the most urgent issues causing anxiety to
1. Uniform 100% DA Relief to Bank Pensioners, who retired before November 2002.

2. Pension Updation: It is even held by the Hon’ble Supreme Court that Pay Revision and Pension Revision cannot be separated from one another. Moreover Pension Regulation 15 (1) also very clearly states that Bank Pension shall be updated but unfortunately no updation has been done since November 1989 and in the process those who retired earlier are drawing a very meager Pension as compared with a very junior subordinate who retired recently or retiring in future. A General Manager who retired in 1990 is drawing a Pension of about Rs. 24,000/-, which is much less than the Pension of a clerical staff, who retires now. This anomalous situation has arisen because of non updation of Basic Pension for nearly three decades though regularly wage revision is taking place with no benefit of salary revision being passed on to the Bank Retirees.

3. Improvement of Family Pension: Though the Government Employees and RBI Employees have received improved Family Pension to 30% of Pay to the spouse of the deceased retired Employees, in Banks for the retirees it is continuously 15% that too with ceiling.

4. Pension for Employees resigned after putting Pensionable Service: Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has already given the verdict in respect of writ petitions filed by Vijaya Bank Employees and upheld the judgment of Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka giving relief to all petitioners. But it is unfortunate that very unreasonably IBA directed the member Banks not to extend the relief of the Judgment to other similarly placed employees stating that whoever wants relief should again approach the courts. This is not only against the Seniors Citizen Litigation Policy as propounded by the Central Government but also against all legal ethics and also amounts to disregarding the highest body of the Judiciary. In fact this also tantamounts to going against the guidelines of Department of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India to all the Public Sector organizations that in case of Senior Citizens cases the Public Sector Organizations should not harass the Retirees by going on appeals against the favorable Judgments given by the Courts and also should not unnecessarily force the Senior Citizens to seek relief from the Courts. The number of such Resignees is very small and by extending Pension to them we will be only upholding the concept of Pension for all as a social security scheme.

The above are the major issues concerning the Bank Retirees for a very long time. The Bank Pension Scheme has been implemented in the Banks after the same was duly incorporated as Bank Employees Pension Regulations. Regulation 56 of Bank Employees Pension Regulations makes it clear that the Bank Pension Scheme is exactly in the lines of Central Government Employees Pension Scheme. It is also a fact that Bank Employees Pension Scheme is under DEFINED BENEIFT PENSION SCHEME for those who are recruited before 2010 which is also the case for Central Government Employees. Even the DA Relief is given to Bank Retirees once in six months as Central Government Employees whereas for serving Bank Employees it is in every three months. The punitive clauses of the Government Employees Pension Scheme are also automatically incorporated in the Bank Employees Pension scheme in regard to disciplinary actions after retirement and payment of pension subject to future good conduct. It is also a fact that the Consolidated Pension Fund of all the Public Sector Bank together with State Bank of India is about TWO LAC CRORES and hence the Pension Corpus is also sufficiently funded. Moreover the Pension Scheme being a Defined Benefit Pension Scheme it is obligatory on the part of Banks to pay the Pension as per the Pension regulations. Denying the payment of pension as per Regulations stating the cost as a factor is not legally tenable as the Pension scheme in Banks is under Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

The Bank Employees and Officers have tirelessly contributed to the Massive growth of Banking to the nooks and corners of the country after nationalization from mere 8000 branches in 1969 to more than 2,20,000 branches presently. The imprints of Banking Service is very deeply rooted in Rural, Semi-urban, Urban or Metropolitan centers serving the poorest of the poor and also giant industries. It is our earnest request to your good selves to help the Bank Retirees, who are responsible for the phenomenal transformation in the development of the Nation. We sincerely hope the Bank Retirees will get a life of dignity and pride in the evening of their life as is given to Retired Central Government Employees in the matter of Pension and other welfare measures.

A.Ramesh Babu    K.V.Acharya

Joint Conveners 
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Source: AIBPARC Website