Retired bankers’ pension demand

Patna: A forum of retired bank officials on Sunday expressed concerns over financial constraints and reiterated their demand for pension revision.

Indrajeet Sanyal, adviser of the All India Bank Retirees Action Forum, said: “The last revision of bank employees’ pension was made in 1995. We demand automatic pension revision on the lines of central government employees.”

Sanyal also said high premiums for medical insurance that the retired employees have to pay are draining their resources. “The retired employees have to pay very high insurance premium for health exigencies – from Rs 16,000 to Rs 29,000 for Rs 3 lakh medical insurance. This has put them under severe financial pressure.”

The forum has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, urging him to intervene to provide relief to the retired employees and their families.

Lakshman Singh, the president of the Allahabad Bank Pensioners Association, said the gratuity (retirement benefit) of bank employees was updated on March 29 this year while the gratuity of central government employees – like in RBI and BSNL – was updated on January 1, 2016. “We urge the government to provide gratuity benefits according to revision made from January 1, 2016,” he said.

Courtesy: The Telegraph