NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, MAR 30
As many as six former heads of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) have sought Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s intervention on long-pending pension updation issue for retired employees of the bank.
Over 200 employees and retired employees of NABARD’s Gujarat Region joined 4,000 employees nationally in observing a one-day strike on Monday demanding revision of pension as well as an option to switch over from contributory provident fund to pension scheme.
While observing the dharna before the Ahmedabad office they followed all COVID-19 safety measures.
The past chairmen and managing directors of the development financial institution wrote the letter a month back but there was no progress on the matter.
Speaking with navjeevanexpress.com, Mukesh Thakkar, who retired as Chief General Manager of the NABARD headquarters in Mumbai, said, “NABARD has Rs 5750 crore in its pension fund as of March 2020 and sufficient surplus is generated every year from the returns on investment of pension funds. Hence, NABARD does not require external support to revise pension, they argued. This issue has been lingering on for two decades despite seven settlements till 2017.”
When asked what would they do if the government does not concede to their demands,, Thakkar replied that, “The UFOERN will intensify the current agitation in NABARD with two day strikes, march to parliament if the one day strike fails to nudge Management of NABARD, DFS, GOI to agree to genuine demands of NABARD employees.”
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) is the apex agri-finance institution set up by an Act of Parliament in 1981.
The staff members of Nabard – both serving and retired – were on strike under the banner of the United Forum of Officers, Employees and Retirees of Nabard (UFOERN).
The issue of pension updation has been pending since 2001. Pension revision for RBI’s staff and officers was done in 2012 but the Finance Ministry is yet to take a call on the Nabard issue.
The Forum in a statement said it is demanding benefits, including full pension after 20 years of qualifying service, calculation of pension based on last pay drawn or the average emoluments for the last 10 months, whichever is more, and updation of pension with each wage revision, at par with RBI employees.
Further, the corpus in the pension fund of Nabard which basically is the money of the employees they would otherwise have received as matching contribution by the employer to their provident fund is good enough to take care of any future liabilities and will not either affect the profitability of the institution or put pressure on the government of India, it said.
It also wants reopening of the pension option, which allows Nabard staff, both serving and retired, to switch from Compensatory Provident Fund (CPF) to pension, like implemented in the RBI in June 2020.
Nabard was carved out of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 1981, by replacing three of its departments –Agricultural Credit Department (ACD), Rural Planning and Credit Department (RPCD) and Agricultural Refinance and Development Department (ARDC).
At that time, the RBI management in order to assuage the fears of employees, while appealing to them to join Nabard, assured them in writing that the pay, allowances and superannuation benefits would be protected and revised at par with their colleagues who remained with the central bank, the statement said.
The parity with RBI in all service conditions including pension was further cemented over the years in all the seven bipartite wage settlements with the workmen association of Nabard, it added.
The United Forum jointly as well as its constituent bodies separately have met several Members of Parliament, Ministers including the Hon’ble Finance Minister, the Minister of State for Finance and the officials of DFS requesting for an early settlement of the issues. All the pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
There is a feeling among the members of the staff that the Management of NABARD has also not put sincere efforts in getting the proposals approved by the DFS.
