Dharna Held On 24 August At Jantar Mantar Delhi

Detailed report on the deliberations of today's events of the historic Rally and Dharna held today morning i.e. on 24.08.18 at at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi.

*All members of preparatory committee consisting of Shri Anil Srivastava, Jugal Kishore Julka, Arvind Sinha, Mohan Badi, Harihar Sinha and Headed by Dr Indrajit Sanyal made tremendous job by working day night to make the arrangement marvellous.*

All the participants started coming from 10 am today morning at Janpath, New Delhi and within a short time there was a large gathering at this venue and the participants started wishing each other as probably it was the first time the old friends met after decades.
The rally started around at 11.15 am with the march by the participants in a disciplined manner in rows with beautiful colourful posters and playcards holding in their hands with slogans and demands written on them. The participants were shouting slogans  with lot of enthusiasm on way to the main dharna venue at Jantar Mantar. The shouting of slogans and dancing by few senior citizens added more colour to the rally of veterans and both side of road many people were seen to watch the March with curiosity and clapping some times.The entire march took place under police ptotection deployed for the purpose.

The Dharna event started with a inaugural address by Shri Harihar Sinha from Bihar a member of the prepatory committee of AIBIRF. He welcomed the participants with open heart and invited the suggestions from all and to invited if anybody wants to speak on this occasion. The following members spoke  in detail about the various demands of pensioners :

1. Sh Jugal Kishore Julka, Canara Bank.
2. Sh Mohan Badi, United Bank of India.
3. Sh. Ram Kishan Bairwa, Syndicate Bank
4. Sh D K Malhotra, P & S Bank
5. Sh Prakash Purohit, Bank of India
6. R C Kataria, Syndicate Bank
7. Sh. Kamal Patni, U Co Bank
8 Sh. Yog Raj Garg, SBI
9 Sh. T N Goel, SBIOA, President
10. Sh D K Sahni, PNB, Agra
11. Smt Asha Sharma, SBP, Patiyala and many more.

The space at *JANTAR MANTAR* Dharna Place was full of retirees to mark the occasion and to support demands.

*It was surprised to all of us that delegates from all corners of whole of India participated apart from Delhi activists including MP, Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka, AP, Punjab, Tamilnadu even J&K and Assam were present.*

The long pending demands of Pensioners discussed in today's meetings are :

1. Pension Updation
2. Family Pension
3. Re-notification of Gratuity wef 01.01.2016
4. Reduction in premium of medical insurance
5. No Income Tax on Pension
6. Pension Fund should have Pensioners as Trustees
7. No BPS negotiations without Pensioner Representatives

The Keynote address was delivered by Dr. Inderjit Sanyal wherein he explained in detail about the Forum, it's working and the ways and means to redress the grievances of the Pensioners pending for the last more than two decades by taking up the matter with various govt authorities and helping and filing of various pending court cases. He has assured all the participants to send any of their demands to the Forum very freely. He also invited all the various groups of Pensioners to come to us, sit with us and join with us to jointly fight for the cause of Pensioners to get justice for them in future. He also invited all the participants to become the members of the Forum and bring as many more to become members so as it will become easy to legally fight for pensioners. He also informed the participants to fight with IBA that the BPS talks about Pensioners should be held with Pensioners Forum and not with any other Union or Association.

Mr Goel also spoke in strong words that Pension Fund should be used for the Pensioners only and for no other purposes. The Pensioners should be also made Trustees of the Pension Fund to have a better management of the Fund. The Insurance Premium should not be increased from its present level in future for Pensioners.
Mr Kamal Patni of Ratlam and Mrs Asha Sharma from Patiyala strongly advocated that Gratuity should also be made effective from 01.01.2016 urgently as various Govt undertakings are rewarded retrospective effect and discrimination made for bank retirees.
The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by Sh Ramesh Bhateja of SBBJ now State Bank.
Thanks to all.





Friends
Happy Raksha Bandhan.
I reached Mumbai this morning after the hectic activity on 23 rd and 24 th August in Delhi. It was a historic moment made by bank Retirees of age group 61 to 80 + in the protest march and Dharna in front of Jantar Mantar.

The number crossed 500 and many have watched the event through FB wall of AIBRAF. The response is excellent. The efforts are by Retirees and the forum is acting as catalysts to consolidate the movement.

 I have few suggestions.
1. For recalculation of gratuity  no cut off date for retirement,pl keep touch with Bhateja ji. Better terms has been explained clearly. If The Gratuity Act 1972 indicates in some clauses better terms , no bank has the right to replace it by it's own regulations.

2. For re-notification of enhanced gratuity w.e.f.01/01/2016, pl keep touch with Kalia ji. He has filed a WP in Delhi High Court. Hearing in September 2018.

3. Regarding filing of case for Pension updation Mr. M.C. Singla and others have filed SLP in Supreme Court and hearing is expected in September 2018. Also Sri Venugopal ji is filing a WP in Kerala high court by end of this month for Pension updation.

4. Regarding the health insurance policy we are having dialogue with insurance company representatives. We are hopeful that the existing policy terms at same premium rate may be made available through the forum. 

All the Retirees activists mentioned above are important members of the AIBRAF and any development in the matter will be posted. The Dharna and protest are also being planned in different metro cities.

All developments will be posted in whatsApp and FB walls. Please don't upload any wish messages as this will consume the space in your device.

Regards to each one of you.

Dr. I. Sanyal