NCCPA SECRETARIAT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS
The National Secretariat of NCCPA, which met at New Delhi on 16th
March, 2019 while reviewing its efforts in the last five years getting the
Government to address the issues, concerns, grievances and demands of Central
Govt. Pensioners came to the conclusion that the nugatory attitude of the Government
in power at the Centre was the root cause of not finding resolution to any of
the issues. It was so disappointing for
the entire Pensioner community that the Government chose to crush their
expectation for a decent pension raised by the recommendation of the 7th
Central Pay Commission by rejecting the Option No. 1 on the specious ground
that it was not feasible to be implemented due to the non availability of
records in the case of a minor segment of them. The recommendation, if
accepted, would have brought about the much sought after parity between the
past and present pensioners.
The meeting noted with dismay
and anger that during the five year period, the NDA under the BJP was in power
they had acted contrary to the directive principles enshrined in the
constitution of the country i.e. to provide justice to the people, social ,
economic and political. It had
continued with the hated neo-liberal economic policies, the change of which was
the ardent hope of the people when they voted them to power in 2014. The UPA-2 regime’s adherence to these
policies, discarding the welfare scheme evolved by the successive post
independent governments of the country,
which had been the greatest source of sustenance of the poor people;
permitting the unhindered foray of private enterprises in every sphere of
economic and industrial activities; the rampant corruption were the significant
concerns of the Indian multitude in 2014. They expected a change, a change that will
bring about deliverance from abject
poverty and hunger. They were disappointed and are despondent.
The Central Government employees and pensioners know well how this
government took decisions on the recommendations of the 7th
CPC. There had been no negotiation at
all- a complete departure from what had been the practice hitherto. Assurances
held out to force withdrawal of the indefinite strike slated to commence in
July, 2016 was never honoured. Not even
once the group of Ministers met the union representatives, thereafter. The JCM which was set up as a forum for
effecting negotiation with the employees never met even once during the Modi
regime. Even small issues, which has a bearing only over a very small segment of the employees
were not addressed. Only those benefits the higher echelons in the bureaucracy
received consideration and favourable nod.
The employees were dragged to litigation and there had been an eruption
of petitions before the Courts. Contrary
to its own directive not to prefer appeal over the verdicts of the
Administrative Tribunals, this Government had been preferring even writ
petitions against the Tribunal’s orders as a matter of routine, derailing the
process of an expeditious justice delivery system. This attitude resulted in
the litigants ( who are often pensioners
or low paid employees) to shell
out enormous amounts to plead their cases before Courts to seek justice. Even after such procrastinated and inhuman
journey, the Government either will not act upon these judgements or restrict
the application of those judgements only to those who were the petitioners in
the court. This has been the gruelling
story of pensioners and employees in the last five years. Never in the history
of wage negotiations the Government especially in the matter of pension had
taken recourse to rejection of a recommendation made by the Pay
Commission. Before the Courts,
the Government avers that the recommendations of the Pay commissions are to be treated as one that
has emanated from an expert body after deliberations of all pros and cons. The opinion No. 1 was conceived by the Commission to bring in parity between the past and present
pensioners in real terms. It was
rejected on the malicious ground that it
was not feasible to implement in the absence of
relevant records. It was admitted
unashamedly that the records were available in 86%of the cases and in the rest
of the cases supplementary evidences
could be collected to operationalise Option No 1. It is not difficult to discern the real
reason behind such rejection as the said recommendation was not providing the
requisite benefit for the personnel in organised Group A services, as they are
favoured with a time-bound promotion scheme throughout their service career.
The alternate suggestion made by the Committee headed by the Secretary Pension
was to benefit the very same personnel
in Group A services. It was
strange that even the most sensible suggestion put forth by the Staff Side to offer all the three options to the
Pensioners were summarily rejected.
Throughout the five year reign, this Government had been pursuing
crony capitalism. The decision taken
just before the announcement of the elections to hand over the six Indian
Airports to private influential Group of companies is a befitting
example. The country had been going
through a continuous period of crisis, be it in agriculture, farm prices,
industry, trade or employment. Farm
income has crashed to its lowest levels
against the poll promise of doubling it; rural wage growth was abysmally
poor at 0.5%, unemployment has risen to the highest peak in the last 45 years
as per CME, whose report has been concealed; the money collected over the sale
of PSU shares had been doubled in the
five years; all constitutional
institutions were subjected to attack eroding its autonomy; resurgence of corruption in defence
deals involving crores; indulgence in jingoistic nationalism to garner votes;
to put faith beyond the pale of constitutional law and above all systematic
disruption of the social harmony had been some of the hall-marks of the present
Government in its five year long governance.
The meeting thus came to the inescapable conclusion that a relook into the issues concerning the
working people and pensioners would become possible only and only if a change is brought
about by replacing the present people in
the governance of the country . The inevitable democratic process for which the
country is committed to, provides an
opportunity to its citizens to make a change every five years. The coming two months will witness a fierce
battle between those who want to retain the power and those who want to stop
them at all costs. The meeting decided
to appeal all its members to strive hard through diligent exercise
of their franchise enlisting the
support of all sections of the working class to bring about a change of
Government in the country in the coming elections.
The state of economy and society
After the five years of
NDA regime
1.
During these five years every area of economic
activity has been opened up for direct
foreign investment promoting maximisation of profit by them
2.
Large scale of privatisation of
public assets and handing over prime assets to chosen foreign and Indian corporates.
3.
Unfettered promotion of crony
capitalism as reflected in the Rafale
scam, the granting of rights to
privatise domestic airports , India’s first power sector SEZ to the
Adani Group on the eve of election,
removing all previous curbs on funding political parties , introduction of
electoral bonds as the route to reap the
spoils of such cronyism,
4.
Facilitating and promoting the
loot of public money as reflected in the Rs.11 lakh crore plus amount of NPA.
5.
Destruction of livelihood of
corers of people surviving on cash transactions through demonetisation.
6.
Virtual destruction of the micro
small and medium enterprises the largest employment provider after agriculture
through the implementation of the GST.
The Mudra loan NPAs rose to 53per cent in the first nine months of
2018-19 from 2017-18.
7.
Farm income crashed to the
lowest in 14 years during the last quarter of October-December, 2018 at 2.67
per cent (Central Statistics Office) RBI
reports that loans that are not returned in the farm sector increased to Rs;
1lakh crore in September, 2018 from Rs. 70000 crores in September,2017.This is
the level of agrarian distress leading to rising distress suicides of farmers.
8.
Our youth are frustrated due to
the sharp fall in employment opportunities during the last few years. Modi had
promised creation of 2 crore new jobs annually i;e. 10 crores by now. Reality is that the unemployment rate rose to
the highest levels in 45 years at 6.1. per cent. (NSSo) Unemployment rate
inFeb.2019 increased to 7.1. per cent
from 5.9 per cent in 2018 (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) Situation in
rural India is worse. NSSSO reports a
3.2.crore job loss of casual labourers
from 2011-12 to 2017-18 affecting over1.5 crore families dependent on income
from Casual labour and agriculture.
9.
As per the Gujarat Assembly
records, the crime against SC and
ST increased by 32% and 55% respectively
during the last five years in that state.
10.
Women have been subjected to
increased violence. The year 2016
reported a big increase in crimes against women- four rapes on an average per
hour. Since then the Government has
stopped publishing statistics by the National crime records bureau in this
regard.
11.
During these five years the
share of the total wealth accruing to the top one per cent of the population
increased from 49 per cent in 2014 to 73 per cent in 2018.
12.
The lowest growth rate of GDP
during these five years from.8.2 per
cent in 2013-14 to 7percent in the first
three quarters of 2018-19 even according to the motivated data series
introduced by the Government. According to the earlier data series this stands
at mere 4.7 percent.
13.
In the last quarter, the GDP
growth rate fell further to6.6 per cent
indicating that the economy is sliding into a recession. So much for Modi’s claims of India being the
“fastest growing economy” in the world.
14.
GST collection despite all the
tall claims shown steady decline from 7.6 per cent in 2017-18 to 5.8
per cent in 2018-19. This reflect a massive slowdown in the economy.
15.
Demonetisation and GST were a
double whammy attack undermining the country’s economic fundamentals.
Pre-demonetisation global GDP was 2.6 per cent and grew post demonetisation to
3.1.percent. In contrast, the post demonetisation India’s GDP
growth fell from. 7.6 per cent to 6.8 per cent.
16.
Destruction of people’s livelihood
has led to a drastic fall in levels of domestic demand crippling
manufacturing and industrial growth. As a consequence, the country’s leading
automobile manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki has announced a production cut of 27 per
cent citing the fall in demand. The eight core infrastructure industries
growth saw a decline of 2.9 per
cent between February, 2014 and January,
2019. The index of industrial production
registered an abysmal low of 0.3 percent inNovember,2018 compared to an average
growth of 5.7 per cent in the preceding seven month.
17.
Depreciation of rupee to its
lowest levels- the value of the rupee to a US dollar was 63.19in 2014. This shot to71.76 in 2019 .
18.
Drastic fall in India’s export
earnings – Between Feb.2014 and January, 2019 India’s trade balance declined by
whopping 29.8per cent. Growing current account deficit ie. Gap between India’s export and Import
value has been registered during these five years. The current account deficit increased from 1
per cent of the GDP in 201718 to. 2.9
per centin 2018-19. In dollar terms this translates into deficit growth
from 6.1. billion US dollars to 19.1. billion.
19.
Agriculture growth is at a
record low during these years. Agricultural growth rate fell from 5.1. percent
to 2.7 per cent and further to 1.7per cent between Feb. 2015 and Feb,2019(CSO) The fourth successive
negative growth rate registered in the last four quarters.
20.
The incidents of terror have
exponentially gown between 2009-14 and
2014-19. The number of terrorist attacks
increased from 109 to 626. The number of
security personnel killed increased from
139 to 483. The number of civilians
killed increased from 12 to 210 and the number of ceasefire violations increased from 563 to
5596.
21.
There is an alarming rise in
the number of local youth joining militant groups. Local militants killed rose from 16 in2014 to
191 in 2018.
22.
Foreign policy orientation
changed to dovetail to US global strategic interests reducing India as a junior
partner of US imperialism.
23.
Deterioration of friendly
relations with all neighbouring countries.
24.
Deepening defence ties with USA
and Israel.
25.
Virtual abandonment of India’s
leadership role in the non- aligned movement.
26.
Abandoning India’s traditional
solidarity with the people of different countries whose sovereignty is being
attacked by US Imperialism including military interventions. The latest instance being Venezuela.
27.
During these five years, the
BJP , particularly Narendra Modi has betrayed every single promise that was
made to the Indian people. Generation of
two crore jobs every year i.e. ten
crores by now and MSP of 1.5. times the total cost of
production to the farmers, return of
black money and depositing 15 lakhs in the account of all Indians and so
on.
28.
Engaging in a despicable
politicising of the issue of terrorist attacks when the entire country and all opposition parties stood as one to fight terrorism.
29.
Sharp decline in the working
conditions for the working class and employees is accompanied by unbearable
hike in the price of petroleum products with the Government refusing to reduce
its taxes and duties.
30.
Deepening agrarian distress leading to the ruination of
the Indian farmers and growth in distress suicides.
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