Railwaymen demand OROP

Railwaymen demand OROP

New Delhi: With the government giving in-principle approval to the one rank one pension scheme for defence personnel, Railway employees are now asking for similar pension benefit, arguing that their duties too are “hazardous, risky and complex”.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, National Federation of Indian Railwaymen has demanded uniform pension policy for railway employees.

“On an average, 800 railway employees get killed per year in the course of duty and nearly 3,000 sustain injuries at work,” M Raghavaiah, general secretary of NFIR, said.

Railways, one of the largest employer in the country, has about 13 lakh employees.

He said over 85 per cent of railway employees work in remote locations and extremist-affected areas.

Raghavaiah appealed to scrap the New Pension Scheme in railways and grant OROP to employees “as has been agreed to in the case of retired defence personnel”.

PTI

Mamata Banerjee announces LTC for foreign countries

Mamata Banerjee announces LTC for foreign countries

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday announced a bonanza for state government employees including Leave Travel Concession (LTC) facility for visiting some foreign countries ahead of the Assembly elections next year.

The state employees till now enjoyed only one LTC in their whole work life for journey in the country.

“You will get benefit every five years for Home Travel Concession (HTC). State government employees will get Leave Travel Concession every ten years and can travel to Travel to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka,” Banerjee announced during a convention of the West Bengal State Government Employees’ Federation at Netaji Indoor Stadium.

Banerjee also announced that all state government employees will get 10 per cent hike in DA in January, 2016. The state employees will also get the privilege of revised salaries by the introduction of sixth pay commission from January 2016 till December, 2025.

The 10 per cent hike would reduce the difference in DA for state employees compared to their central counterparts to 44 per cent.

“In order to provide the benefits to state government employees, we will form a Group of Ministers, who will be led by Finance Minister Amit Mitra. The nitty-gritties for the pay commission would be finalised shortly by the Group of Ministers (GoM), for coordination with staffers,” the CM added.

TST

OROP: Modi Requests Withdrawal of Protests; Anna Hazare cancels hunger strike

OROP: Modi Requests Withdrawal of Protests; Anna Hazare cancels hunger strike

“It is worth mentioning the fact that the Centre had recently fulfilled the 40 year long pending demand of the ex-servicemen regarding their pensions.”

The government at the centre, under the leadership of Narendra Modi, has requested the ex-servicemen to withdraw their protests on OROP. The government has said that there was no point in carrying on with the protests, now that the issue has been resolved.

The government had recently accepted the 40 year long demand of the ex-servicemen to grant OROP. But the ex-servicemen are demanding that the scheme also be made applicable to those who had opted for voluntary retirement and that the pension be revised once every year. Protests are continuing for the implementation of these and a few other important demands.

Amit Shah, the national president of the BJP has accused the Congress of trying to manipulate every issue to gain political mileage. “We have fulfilled our promise to implement OROP. After keeping quite for all these days, why is Congress making noise now?” he asked.

Meanwhile, Anna Hazare has announced that he was withdrawing his earlier announced protests for OROP. He was planning to launch a massive fast on October 2 demanding the implementation of OROP and withdrawal of the Land Acquisition Bill. Since it has now become clear that there is no possibility of clearing an emergency bill on land acquisition, and since the government has accepted the OROP demands, he has said that he was withdrawing the protests.