HPSEB Pensioners Raise Concerns Over Pending Arrears, DA and Pension Issues.
Shimla:
A meeting of the Sundernagar unit of the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Board Pensioners Forum was held at the Suket Cinema premises at Sundernagar in Mandi district under the chairmanship of unit president Engineer K.S. Jamwal. A large number of retired employees and officers, ranging from senior chief engineers to line staff, along with members of families receiving pension after the death of pensioners, attended the meeting.
The meeting began with a two-minute silence to pay tribute to E.V.K. Larohia, a retired Superintending Engineer, who recently passed away. Members prayed for the peace of the departed soul and expressed condolences to his family.
During the meeting, the pensioners strongly criticised the electricity board management for allegedly failing to hold a meeting with the state pensioners’ forum for a long period despite repeated requests. They also expressed concern over the non-payment of arrears arising from revised pay scales to retired employees and officers.
Addressing the gathering, unit president Engineer K.S. Jamwal, general secretary Sohan Singh Chauhan and state joint general secretary Jagmel Thakur said employees and officers who retired between January 2016 and April 2022 had still not received full arrears relating to revised pay scales for their period of service.
They alleged that revised payments relating to leave encashment, gratuity and other retirement benefits had also not been made to the affected pensioners. The speakers termed the delay as highly regrettable and urged the electricity board management to resolve the matter at the earliest.
The pensioners also raised the issue of recovery of commuted pension. They said interest of more than 12 per cent, based on the rate applicable years ago, was effectively being taken into account over the 15-year recovery period. They demanded that the interest burden be revised in line with prevailing bank interest rates, which are currently around 7 per cent.
The meeting also expressed deep concern over the alleged non-payment of 15 per cent pending dearness allowance (DA). Members unanimously urged the Chief Minister to ensure that the outstanding DA was released without further delay.
The pensioners warned that if their demands continued to be ignored, the Electricity Board Pensioners Forum, along with other organisations engaged in the ongoing struggle for pensioners’ rights, would intensify its agitation. They said pensioners could be compelled to take to the streets along with their families to protest against what they described as continued neglect of their legitimate demands.
Several retired chief engineers and other senior officials and pensioners attended the meeting, including K.D. Khosla, Pawan Sharma, N.P. Sharma, R.S. Katwal, B.L. Sharma, P.K. Sharma, Bhal Chandra Sharma, N.D. Walia, Akshay Pandey, Lakshmi Sharma, P.C. Katoch, Pushp Raj Sharma, P.R. Parashar, S.L. Kashyap, K.D. Dhiman, Ravindra Nath Sharma, Jeet Ram Thakur, Bhup Singh Rana, O.P. Kaushal, Lalit Mahajan and several others.
The meeting concluded with a call for the authorities to address the pending financial and pension-related issues of retired electricity board employees at the earliest.
