Monday, August 31, 2009

Retired Sikkim employees claim raw deal from Pay Commission

GANGTOK, August 30: Out rightly rejecting any possible bid of the State Government to generalize them into the general health insurance scheme, the retired government employees of Sikkim have demanded provisions of medical relief of at least 20 percent of basic pay or Rs. 3000 flat per month to be incorporated into the Fourth Pay Commission report.
The forum of retired government employees, Sikkim Government Retired Employees Welfare Association (SGREWA) had conveyed a general body meeting of its members here at Deorali to voice their grievances and demands.
Dorjee Bhutia, SGREWA president said that the association is to understand the high level Review Committee headed by additional chief secretary constituted to study the recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission is mulling to sanction Rs. 500 per month to each retired State government employee as medical relief.
It is not confirmed but we understand the Review Committee is considering allocating Rs. 500 as medical relief to the employees or to include us into the health insurance scheme, said Mr. Bhutia.
We condemn this and such considerations are not acceptable by the retired government employees or those in the verge of retirement after given several years of service to the government and people, said Mr. Bhutia.
The single point demand of SGREWA was that the retired government employees should be allocated 20 percent of basic pay or Rs 3000 as medical relief.
Nothing else will be met with satisfaction, the members said unanimously.
The possible health insurance scheme was rejected on the grounds by the members that it will be a burden to the retired employees in the old ages who may find difficult to understand the nitty-gritty involved in the package. We cannot run here and there to pursue our bills and grievances and we want pension, medical relief allowances and other retirement facilities directly, the members said.
The SGREWA has decided to approach the Review Committee with their grievances and try to make the committee understand that the retired employees will like their due retirement facilities be given in a simpler manner.
“We will press ahead with our demands”, said Mr. Bhutia.
Earlier, SGREWA general secretary PL Sharma informed the retired employees who had gathered from all the four districts that the association had been formed last year to highlight the requests of the retired employees to the Fourth Pay Commission.
The SGREWA was specially formed to raise the medical benefits issue to the commission and we had a detailed discussion with the commission last year followed by submission of our representation, said Mr. Sharma.
The general secretary also informed that the association had approached Chief Minister earlier this year but nothing concrete could materialize as model code of conduct had already been enforced due to the elections.
After the elections, we tried to meet the Chief Minister to remind him of our points but so far we have not succeeded, said Mr. Sharma.
In between, we have managed to register our association with the State government with the support of all our members which has given us a formal cover, said the SGREWA general secretary.
When the Fourth Pay Commission submitted its report to the State government, we heard that our medical relief has not been enhanced and to make matter worse, it is being heard that the Review Committee is consider to cut down it further, said Mr. Sharma. This is not digestible, he said.
The meeting concluded with the unanimous decision by all the members to press ahead with their demands.
Elections for the formal executive committee of the association will also be held soon, it was informed.