The United Forum of Officers, Employees and the Retired Employees of Nabard (UFOERN) staged demonstration on Monday in front of the Nabard regional office, here, to seek resolution of long-pending pension-related issues.
The agitation was held as part of national level stir held in the Nabard regional offices across the country. UFOERN, Odisha unit secretary Umakanta Mohanty in a Press release said that Nabard was carved out of the Reserve Bank of India in 1982, with the sole aim to give focus to agriculture and rural development. “Initially, before opting for Nabard, the staff of RBI had the apprehension on parity in salary, allowances and pension benefits etc. The then Deputy Governor of RBI and Chairman of Nabard, in consultation with the Finance Ministry, had assured the officers and staff of the RBI in writing that they would be entitled to all benefits at par with their RBI staff and persuaded them to opt for Nabard. Section 50 of Nabard Act 1981 also provided statutory approval to such parity with RBI,” Mohanty said.
He further said, “A similar clause was also provided in Nabard Staff Rules 1982 which is a Subordinate Legislation of Parliament. With all these protections guaranteed by Act of Parliament, Nabard employees are hitherto getting all salaries, pension and all other benefits at par with RBI since inception.
Surprisingly, the pension scheme similar to RBI introduced in Nabard in 1993 has not been revised since 1993 even though the pension in RBI has been revised since last two years.” A few other modifications in pension scheme approved in RBI like pension after 20 years of service, pension fixation on the basis of last pay drawn or last 10 months average pay whichever was beneficial, reopening of pension option for very few remaining employees who could not opt due to various reasons, have not yet been effected in Nabard.
As a result, even the top most officials of Nabard retired prior to 1997 presently draw pension which is too meagre for survival, he lamented.
The Board of Directors of Nabard have already approved pension revision and other related issues and sent to the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Government of India for approval. However, the DFS is yet to approve the same revisions for Nabard employees which are pending since last two years causing a disparity between the employees who had opted for Nabard and who stayed back in the RBI, which is a blatant violation of provisions of Nabard Act.
Statements given in Parliament on various occasions and solemn assurances given by highest authorities in this regard have not been fulfilled. Even the Direction given by the Àllahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench) order in December 2019 on pension revision in Nabard has not been honoured by the Government of India, Mohanty said.
Nabard Retired Employees Welfare Association president Dharanidhar Mishra also lamented the apathy meted ouit to them by the DFS.