Bureaucrats attempt to be-fool the Pensioners!

Bureaucrats attempt to be-fool the Pensioners!

When will the Bureaucrats change their character?

Errors and Omission in the latest order dated 30^th July

It seems the Indian Bureaucrats will never change themselves! Read the latest order of the Department of Pension & Pensioners Welfare dated 30^th July 2015 on ‘Revision of pension of pre-2006 pensioners’ very carefully. It contains some erroneous statements and next it fails to incorporate the essence of another judgment of the Supreme Court regarding grant of full pension for pre-2006 pensioners with less than 33 years of service.

This latest order fails to mention the mistake committed in the clarification OM dated 3.10.2008 in the first paragraph. On the other hand the order wrongly says as though the clarification OM repeated the same thing as that of the original Para 4.2 of OM dated 1.9.2008. It fails to mention that clarificatory OM dated 3.10.2008 had actually twisted the words “pay in the pay band” into “minimum of the pay band”! One who reads the latest order will naturally get confused as to what is the difference between the original OM dated 1.9.2008 and the clarificatory OM dated 3.10.2008 against which six years of legal battles were being waged by the Senior Citizens?

Similarly the latest order again distorts the nature of the prayers by Petitioners in the CAT. The prayer in the CAT was for demanding fixation of pension to pre-2006 pensioners was to cancel the clarificatory OM’s contention of “Minimum of the Pay Band” and uphold the “Pay of the Pay Band plus the Grade Pay appropriate to the pre-revised pay scale” read with the fitment table annexed to the MOF, DOE OM as recommended by the 6^th CPC. But the latest order distorts the prayers of pensioners and says as though the pensioners in the CAT had demanded only what was wrongly stated in the clarificatory OM dated 3.10.2008 instead of the original OM dated 1.9.2008!!

Even though the Para 4 of the latest order dated 30^th July practically solves the problem faced by pre-2006 pensioners by changing the date of effect of OM dated 28-01-2013 with effect from 1.1.2006 instead of 24-09-2012, it can be seen that this order is drafted in such a nasty manner. What is the meaning of that? Are the bureaucrats are foolish enough to fail to understand the difference between the original OM and the clarificatory OM? If so they are fools. But they are not fools because they are trying to make the lakhs of pensioners look like fools? One thing is sure. The Indian Bureaucrats will never change their character even on the face of repeated blows they receive at the hands of the Judiciary.

Secondly, it can be seen that while the Para 4 of this latest order set rights the problem of fixation of pension of pre-2006 pensioners as per the original OM dated 1.9.2008, it refuses to incorporate the essence of another Supreme Court verdict upholding Kerala High Court and the CAT Ernakulam Bench viz., to grant full pension to pre-2006 pensioners with less than 33 years of service in the light of the fact that the Para 4.2 never mentions about pro-rata fixation of pension to pensioners with less than 33  years of service. This also shows the mindset of the Bureaucrats and the Government that they do not want to honour the judgments of the highest court of the land.  This is the character of the Indian Bureaucracy that never wants to bow its head before anything including the Apex Court! When will they change for the better? We do not  know!

This Association is writing to the Minister concerned about the above facts for effecting necessary corrections in the latest order.

K.Ragavendran

General Secretary