SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Aug 8: Thousands of retired coal employees are set to hold an indefinite dharna at the Coal Mines Provident Fund Organization (MPFO) headquarters in Dhanbad for their pension revision as they have received no response from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), ministry of coal and Coal India Limited (CIL).
The decision was taken at the Coal Pensioners’ Association held at Recreation Club Koyla Nagar, the headquarter of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), on Sunday evening.
Besides Jharkhand-based CCL, ECL and BCCL, the representatives of CIL’s other companies also participated in the meeting. Working president of the association SN Singh (ECL), who is 86 years old, was also present.
President of Coal Pensioners’ Association (CPA) Ramanuj Prasad said that despite repeated requests and memorandums to the PMO and ministry of coal, no step was initiated to bail out thousands of retired coalmen. So, it has been decided to hold a demonstration before the CMPFO headquarters in Dhanbad for an indefinite period to wake up the concerned authority from their slumber.
“Three categories of retired employees would sit in the dharna. First who do not get a pension, second who get the nominal amount and third whose pension payment is likely to be affected in near future,” Prasad said.
The representatives of the association, Dayashankar Shukla, SK Madhu, Nakul Mahto and Bhushan Maharaj, said that members at the meeting took serious note of the indifferent attitude of the central government towards coal pensioners and condemned it strongly. “These coalmen served the industry honestly and with dedication but in return, they only received insult from government,” they said.
CPA president Ramanuj Prasad said the members of the association would visit all colliery areas of different coal companies of CIL to make the present miners aware of the crisis they are likely to face in near future for pension and PF amounts due to the fund crisis in CMPFO.
