Coal pensioners to agitate for dearness relief in pay, pension body revamp

Retired Employees Association says nearly 270,000 pensioners are getting less than Rs 2,000 a month as pension

Members of the All India Association of Coal Pensioners (AICPA) will be staging a protest in the capital in the coming days against the non-revision of the pension amount and restructuring the Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation (CMPFO)- coal pensioners' apex social security organisation. 

Among the primary demands by the pensioners is the incorporation of the Dearness Relief (DR) component as a part of pension to ensure equitable pension and abide by the provisions enacted in Coal Miners Pension Scheme (CMPS)-1998  to review and revise pension every three years. 

Coal mines employees are covered under the CMPS 1998, which is administered by the CMPFO under the Ministry of Coal. The corpus fund for the scheme has been eroded over the years due to mismanagement and has resulted in no enhancement for the pensioners. The parliamentary accounts committee (PAC) chaired by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in its report last year has said 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. 

Pensioners also demand that the compulsory levy of Rs ten per tonne as cess on the coal produced by the coal companies to strengthen the depleting pension corpus be increased to Rs 20 per tonne, with provision for enhancement of cess for every three years. 

Speaking to Business Standard, Dandamraj Ramchander Rao, President, Singareni Retired Employees Association, says that nearly 270,000 coal pensioners are getting less than Rs 2,000 per month as pension. 

“For 24 years since the inception of the scheme, there has been no revision and enhancement in the pension, and we are living in a state of abject penury. We request the government to expedite the process so that the hardships in our sunset days are ameliorated soon,” adds Rao.