Senior Vets urge CM to intervene
MOHALI: The Punjab Senior Vets Association in a meeting held here today urged the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann to direct the Finance department to rationalise the pension commutation recovery installments period as per affidavit of Government submitted in High court .
Speaking on the occasion, Member Punjab State Veterinary Council & former Joint Director Animal husbandary Punjab Dr Gurinder Singh Walia and former Chief Executive Officer Punjab Gau Sewa Commission Dr Nitin Kumar said that in the court case for stopping recovery of installments of commuted portion of pension after 11 years, the Advocate General had given an undertaking to the Punjab and Haryana high court that the govt would consider to rationalize and reduce the period of recovery of commuted pension in consonance with prevailing interest rates.
They added that more than three months had elapsed since the judgement in the case was announced but no notification in this regard had been issued so far. The Govt of India and many of the states, looking into merit and to ensure justice to pensioners, had reduced the recovery period to 11/12 years but the Punjab government had been dithering on the issue, due to which there was great resentment amongst the pensioners who had served in prime of their life. It's pertinent to mention here that formula to recover commuted pension from pensioners was evolved when prevalent rates of interest were quite high to the tune of 12-13 percent, whereas nowadays these had dropped to 6-8 percent. As per calculation by accounts experts, the recovery which is being made now for 15 years post retirement , is actually recovered in about 11 years.
Former Deputy Directors, Animal husbandry Dr Desh Deepak Goyal, Dr Nirmaljit Singh Mahal and Dr Naresh Sachdeva demanded that a multiplier of '2.59' should be used for revision of pension of those retired prior to 1/1/2016 to ensure equality and justice.
Dr Shashi Saini and Dr Madan Mohan Singla demanded that to provide sense of security , Medical facilities be allowed to employees and pensioners on the pattern of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) so that treatment could be provided to them in the empanelled hospitals.