Coal pensioners to protest at Jantar Mantar on Dec 5

Hyderabad: The All India Coal Pensioners Association is intensifying its agitation demanding reforms in the coal mines pension scheme, with a dharna to be staged at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on December 5.

According to a call given by D Ramchander Rao, president of the Singareni Retired Employees Welfare Association, Kapra, coal mine employees are covered under the Contributory Pension Scheme CMPS-1998. The scheme covers about 5.56 lakh coal employees who retired after March 31, 1994.

However, many of the pensioners or their widows were getting less than Rs.500 to Rs.1000 as monthly pension, whereas the pension given for old people under government schemes was much higher.

PK Singh Rathor, convener, All India Coal Pensioners Association, pointed out that the Telangana government, from 2015, was allowing pensioners of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd to be covered under the Aasara Pension Scheme to get a monthly pension of Rs.2,016. On the other hand, the CMPS-1998 was plagued due to mismanagement resulting into the erosion of corpus fund and no enhancement of pension since inception 24 years ago.

This being the situation, the association, he said, was compelled to stage a dharna at Jantar Mantar, demanding speedy implementation of suggestions the Report of Public Accounts Committee for Restructuring of Coal Mines Pension Scheme (presented in the Parliament March 2020); to incorporate Dearness Relief component as part of pension and to review and revise pension every 3 years among other demands.