Bankers write To Prime Minister But No Gain

Cbpro & Aibrf
Representation to the PM
           Dated: 01.10.2018

 Shri Narendra Modi ji Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Prime Minister’s Office South Block New Delhi-110 001

 Respected Sir,                   

PENDING ISSUES OF BANK PENSIONERS AND RETIREES 

We wish to introduce ourselves as a Coordination of the Organizations of Bank Pensioners and Retirees representing 100% of Bank Pensioners and Retirees numbering more than 5,00,000 members.

We have been engaged in taking up the grievances of Bank Pensioners and Retirees with the Banks, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Indian Banks’ Association and also with the Department of Pension and Public Grievances. To recapitulate, the following issues were taken up by us with the IBA and Government:

 1. Uniform 30% Family Pension as available to the employees of Central Government and Reserve Bank of India,

 2. Updation of Basic Pension and Additional Pension as applicable to the  employees of Central Government and also provided under Bank Pension Regulation 35(1),

 3. 100% DA neutralization to Pensioners who retired before 01.11.2002 as  applicable to those who retired after 01.11.2002.

 4. Pension for those who resigned after completing pensionable service of 20 years.

 5. Reckoning of Special Allowance, which is akin to Grade Pay in Government Service, for the purpose of computing Pension and Gratuity.

 6. Enhanced ceiling of Gratuity from Rs. 10,00,000/- to Rs. 20,00,000/- to be effective from 01.01.2016 as given to Government employees instead of 29.03.2018.

 7. Medical Insurance Premium for Retired Bank Employees and Officers to be borne by the Banks as in case of Retired EDs, MDs, CMDs and serving employees.

 8. Addition of upto 5 years to the qualifying service in case of those Officers who joined the Bank with Specialist qualification or experience in Scientific, Technical or Professional fields – Pension Regulation no. 26.

 9. Computation of Basic Pension on the basis of last drawn Pay by striking down the explanation incorporated in Pension Regulation no. 2 (s).

10. Allowing to exercise Pension option to those who were compulsorily retired-Pension Regulation no. 33.

But we have been experiencing that despite there being a well defined National Litigation Policy, the Bank Pensioners are constrained to knock the door of judiciary even for interpretation and implementation of clear provisions in the Pension Regulations.  It  was  only  through  the  judicial  process  that  the  last  three  issues  listed under  Sl.  nos.  8-10  hereinabove  were  settled  ultimately  at  the  level  of  Hon’ble Supreme  Court  of  India  at  a  huge  cost  in  terms  of  time  and  money  witnessing unfortunate  demise  of  several  of  the  Pensioners  who  could  not  derive  the  benefit  of the settlement  of  the  issues  during  their  life time. 

 Hon’ble  Sir,  you  will  agree  and  appreciate  that  the  Public  Sector  Banks  being instrumentalities  of  the  Government  are  State  within  the  meaning  of  Article  12  of Constitution  of  India.


The  Government  of  India  therefore  exercises  administrative, functional,  pervasive  and  partially  the  regulatory  control  over  the  Public  Sector Banks.

   The  serving  and  retired  employees  of  the  Banks  are  therefore  entitled  to  be treated  equally  and  equitably  in  terms  of  Article  14,  16  and  21  of  the  Constitution  of India.    The  appointment  of  Senior  functionaries  in  Public  Sector  Banks  are  within  the domain  of  Appointments  Committee  of  the  Cabinet  (ACC). 

 The  Personnel  policies  in the  Banks  are  largely  based  on  the  policies  framed  by  Ministry  of  Personnel  as  also communicated  to  the  Banks  through  Department  of  Financial  Services. 

 This  has been  the  rationale  to  frame  Pension  Regulations  for  the  Banks  in  exercise  of  the powers  conferred  by  Section  19  of  Banking  Companies  (Acquisition  and  Transfer  of Undertakings)  Act,  1970  after  consultation  with  the  Reserve  Bank  of  India  and  with the  previous  sanction  of  Central  Government.

    These  Regulations  were  akin  to  the CCS  Pension  Rules  1972.    Hence  Bank  Pension  Regulation  56  (of  1995)  provided  as under  : “In  case  of  doubt,  in  the  matter  of  application  of  these  Regulations,  regard may  be  had  to  the  corresponding  provisions  of  Central  Civil  Services  Rules 1972  or  Central  Civil  Services  (Commutation  of  Pension)  Rules  1981 applicable  for  Central  Government  employees  with  such  exceptions  and modifications  as  the  Bank,  with  the  previous  sanction  of  the  Central Government,  may  from  time  to  time,  determine”.

It  is  in  this  background  that  we  had  taken  up  pending  issues  pertaining  to  Pension related  grievances  of  Bank  Pensioners    with  Dr  Jitender  Singh,  Hon’ble  Minister  of State  for  Personnel,  Public  Grievances  and  Pensions  after  fixing  prior  appointment on  18th  Sept  2018  and  submitted  our  grievances  to  him  with  a  request  to  help  the Bank  Pensioners  to  get  early  resolution  of  their  genuine  grievances.   

The  Hon’ble  Minister  regretted  his  inability  to  even  go  through  the  issues  mentioned in  our  letter  for  the  reason  of  not  having  any  powers  and  advised  us  to  approach Pension  Adalat  which  was  being  held  in  DRDO  Complex  on  that  day  i.e.  18.09.2018.

When  we  submitted  to  him  that  the  said  Pension  Adalat  was  meant  for  only Government  Pensioners  and  not  entertaining  the  grievances  of  Banks  Pensioners, we  meant  it  with  all  seriousness  without  craving  for  any  opportunity  for  photo  shoot as  misunderstood  by  the  Hon’ble  Minister  who  reiterated  his  suggestion  to  go  to Pension  Adalat”  .  He  then  called  his  Secretarial  Staff  and  told  him  to  guide  us  to Pension  Adalat.

  True  to  our  apprehensions,  when  the  officials  of  Pension  Adalat were  contacted  over  phone  by  his  Staff,  they  responded  by  telling  that  the  Adalat was  not  meant  for  Bank  Pensioners’  grievances.

We  thus  returned  disgusted  and disappointed.

    As  representatives  of  more  than  5,00,000  Senior/Super  Senior Citizens  who  had  contributed  their  sweat  and  toil  for  the  economic  growth  of  our Nation  and  taking  the  Banking  to  nook  and  remote  corners  of  the  country  and implementing  various  schemes  of  the  Government,  we  have  expected  at  least  a courteous  treatment  from  a  Senior  functionary  of  the  popular  and  people  friendly Government. 

 An  unexpected  and  agonising  treatment  from  the  Hon’ble  Minister,  we  were  also amused  to  learn  that  the  Department  of  Personnel  and  Public  Grievances  which  also looks after Pension and Pensioners’ welfare of Government  employees is not entertaining the grievances of Public Sector Bank Pensioners who were the public servants.

Under such circumstances we are at a loss to  comprehend the Government machinery which is competent to look into and redress the grievances of Bank Pensioners like us.

We therefore humbly request your honourable good self to consider our grievances as the ultimate head of the Government.  The settlement of our pending issues by the Government will save the poor Bank Pensioners the time and money involved in judicial resolution in the face of lavish and hefty fee which is incurred by Bank Managements who view every case filed by the Pensioners as a prestigious issue to be won at any cost.

It demonstrates a callous and cynical disregard to the Gazetted Regulations and also the provisions of National Litigation Policy of the Government.

 It is pertinent to mention that the Pensionary Benefits including updation and up gradation of Pension to the Government Pensioners are paid out of Budgetary allocations despite there being perennial and perpetual fiscal deficit which is nothing but a loss.

It is thus a settled issue that Pensionary Benefits can neither be denied nor curtailed on the pretext of cost considerations or intermittent loss incurred by the Banks.

However, the Bank Pensioners are denied the above benefits despite the Pension Funds of the Banks being robust with Rs. 3,00,000 crores and self sufficient to meet all the above mentioned demands without adversely affecting the profits of the Banks.

The present disbursements out of the Pension Funds are in the range of 30-40% of the accretion to the fund on account of interest, mandatory contributions and other yields.

The Bank losses are largely on account of huge provisions made for Non Performing Assets of large corporate defaulters which are now termed as telephone sanctions. 

We are enclosing a copy of our letter submitted to the Hon’ble Minister of State with an earnest request to your good self to look into our grievances and direct the appropriate Ministry/Department, competent to redress our grievances and oblige. 

We are writing this letter on International Senior Citizen Day with a fond hope that your honourable good self will understand our pain and agony and render justice to us by looking into our long pending grievances and provide us succour and relief expeditiously. 

With regards                                           
Yours faithfully                (A.Ramesh Babu)       (K.V. Acharya)              (S.C. Jain)           Joint Conveners, CBPRO                General Secretary, AIBRF  Encl: As above