Coal pensioners protest in capital, demand review of pension scheme

Agitators seek dearness relief as scheme component to ensure equitable pension; want adherence to provisions of CMPS 1998 on review and revision of pension every three years

Members of the All India Coal Pensioners association (AICPA) staged a one-day protest in the capital on Monday against the non-revision of the pension amount, and demanded a review of the Coal Mines Pension Scheme (CMPS 1998).

CMPS 1998 covers pensioners from Coal India Ltd (CIL), Singareni Collieries (SCC) and a few other coal firms.

The Coal Mines Provident Fund Organization (CMPFO), working under the Ministry of Coal, has been tasked with the implementation of the scheme.

The protesters demanded Dearness Relief (DR) as a component of the scheme to ensure equitable pension and called for adherence to the provisions of CMPS 1998 on review and revision of pension every three years.

Pensioners also demanded that the compulsory levy of Rs 10 per tonne as cess on the fuel produced by coal companies to strengthen the depleting pension corpus, be raised to Rs 20, with a provision for enhancing the cess every three years.

P K Singh Rathore, convenor, AICPA said that during the 24 years that the scheme has been in force, there has been no revision and enhancement in the pension. He called upon the government to expedite the process of the cess collection.

Dandamraj Ramchander Rao, president, Singareni Retired Employees Association, says nearly 270,000 coal pensioners are getting less than Rs 2,000 a month, as the corpus fund for the scheme has been eroded over the years due to mismanagement.

The parliamentary accounts committee (PAC) chaired by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has said in its report last year that the coal ministry has not taken due care of its responsibility as a watchdog for CMPFO.

“The committee notes that the Ministry of Coal has been apparently found severely wanting in discharging its nodal administrative role, which resulted in financial mis-management by CMPFO," the report noted.