Inspiring 2nd All India Conference of AIPRPA
The 2nd All India
Conference of AIPRPA was held at the impressive M.B.Vingnana Kendram named as
Comrade S.K.Vyas Nagar in honour of the departed veteran leader of the CG
Employees and Pensioners at Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) from 17th to
18th September, 2017. The AIC was held in the massive auditorium of
the premises named after the departed former Secretary General of NFPTE Comrade
D.Gnaniah. The inaugural session and the subjects committee of the Conference
was presided over by the CHQ President Comrade D.K.Rahate. Prior to the
commencement of the inaugural session the National Flag was hoisted by Comrade
M.Krishnan Secretary General of Confederation; the AIPRPA flag was hoisted by
Comrade S.S.Roy the Working Chairman of NCCPA and floral respects were made to
the martyrs’ column amidst renting slogans.
The Reception Committee headed by
the Mangalagiri M.L.A as its Chairman and Comrade Y.Naghabhushanam as its
General Secretary had taken the responsibility to arrange the AIC. The AIC was
attended by 561 Delegates including the Office Bearers and Executive Members
besides large number of Visitors. Delegates representing Delhi, Haryana,
Punjab, Uttarpradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Jharkhand,
Madhyapradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Telengana, Andhra,
Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu participated in the Conference. The
participation of Delegates from the North Eastern States and Assam despite
cancellation of several trains caused by flood situation was inspiring.
The inaugural address in the jam
packed hall was made by the National Vice President of CITU Comrade
A.K.Padmanabhan who elaborately spoke on the militant tradition of the Postal
and CG Employees movement in India since the days of pre-independence and the
role played along with the Central Trade Unions against the nefarious policies of
liberalization and on the importance of Pensioners movement along with the
working class. His speech touched on aspects of the attacks on labour laws and
Pension and Social Security by the Central Government and exposed the
hollowness of the false claims of the Rulers about the publicized growth of the
economy. His speech also dealt at the role of the Indian Government in not
ratifying the important conventions of ILO on grant of basic rights to
organization and collective bargaining by the Civil Servants in India. He
praised the militant participation of CG Employees movement in strikes despite
the declaration of strikes illegal by the Government. He pointed out that on 19th
September it will be the fiftieth year of 1968 glorious strike of CG Employees
and soon we will be celebrating the centenary of the birth of the first formal
trade union in India in the year of 1918. He called upon the Pensioners who are
imbibed with the rich experience and knowledge of the trade union movement to
play an active role in the general working class movement and fight for issues
of common people in addition to our own economic issues.
The inaugural session of the AIC
was also graced and addressed by the eminent leaders of the CG Employees and
Postal Employees movement as well by the leaders of the International and
Indian Pensioners movement including Comrades KKN.Kutty (Secretary General
NCCPA); M.Krishnan (Secretary General Confederation); R.N.Parashar (Secretary
General NFPE); D.Gopalakrishnan (TUI P&R Asia Pacific Region’s Organising
Secretary); K.G.Jayaraj (General Secretary AIBDPA); S.S.Roy (Working President
of NCCPA); C.C.Pillai (Ex-SG NFPE and CHQ Advisor); K.V.Sridharan (Ex-GS P3 and
CHQ Advisor) and senior veteran leader A.G.Pasupathy (Patron AIPRPA Tamilnadu).
The speeches were made by the leaders on different topics that enlightened the
participating delegates and observers.
Comrade KKN.Kutty deliberated on
the topic “NCCPA’s Role in unifying CG Pensioners & Settlement of
Pensioners’ issues after 7th CPC”. Comrade M.Krishnan presented his
views on the topic “Role of Confederation in solving Employees & Pensioners
issues after 7th CPC”. Comrade D.Gopalakrishnan presented paper on
the topic “Building TUI & PR in the Asia Pacific Region”. The topic of
“Building NCCPA – AIBDPA & AIPRPA as the fulcrum” was dealt by Comrade
K.G.Jayaraj. The “Role of NFPE & Service Associations in building NCCPA”
was presented by Comrade R.N.Parashar. Comrade S.S.Roy deliberated on
“Unification of All Pensioners Associations – Need of the Hour”. Comrade
C.C.Pillai covered the topic “NPS – A dangerous device to divide the workers
& the Community of Pensioners”. Comrade K.V.Sridharan spoke on “Rights of
Pensioners and the power of knowledge on Rulings”.
The National Secretary of AITUC
Comrade T.M.Murthy could not attend the Conference to deliver his Special
Address. But the Telengana State President of AITUC and the National Vice
President of AITUC as well as the Vice President of AIPRPA (CHQ) Comrade
T.Narasimhan spoke on the attitude of the Government on worker related issues
and the Pensioners problems as well as the immediate organisational issues
confronting the AIPRPA organization. He also communicated the greetings on
behalf of Comrade T.M.Murthy.
The Stage during the inaugural
session was also graced by other leaders
of NCCPA Comrades T.S.Parameswaran; C.P.Shobana, S.Rahman and Ishwar Singh
Dabas; BCPC Deputy Secretary General Comrade D.D.Singh; and the Chair Person of
Confederation’s Mahila Committee Comrade R.Seethalakshmi.
The Report that was placed by the
General Secretary of AIPRPA Comrade K.Ragavendran was followed by a discussion
amongst the Delegates. The discussion was absorbing and helped the organization
to resolve its position on different issues of Pensioners. The major issues
confronting the CG Pensioners in general and the Postal Pensioners in
particular received prominence in the debate besides the efforts to build the
AIPRPA as a stronger organization. The stand of Officialdom on Option Number 1
and the rejection by the Government on the grounds of infeasibility; The denial
of grant of fixation based on the pay scale implemented to the post or cadre
from which the pensioner was retired under 12th May Orders of the
Government; the rejection of fixation to Pre-2006 Pensioners in accordance with
the judgments of different courts to all similarly placed pensioners; the delay
in accepting and implementing several health related recommendations to
Pensioners etc received prominence both in the Report submitted by the General
Secretary and in the debate that followed.
The progress made notwithstanding
the above negative stand of the Government was looked into as a product of
success attributable to the birth and the subsequent sincere efforts of AIPRPA.
The role of AIPRPA along with different Pensioners Organizations to submit a common memorandum to 7th CPC; the consistent role to attempt the get Option
Number 1 implemented; its role that created pressure on the Government to grant
Option Number 3 in lieu of Option Number 1;
the positive recommendation of the Pay Commission to end the age-old
discrimination against the Postal Pensioners on the matter of admittance in
CGHS after retirement and the subsequent campaign to get the above
recommendation quickly implemented etc had been
looked as the initial successes of the organization of AIPROA.
The AIC endorsed the line of
continuing the struggle as resolved by the NCCPA’s National Executive held at
Nagpur on 19th August and called upon the rank and file to mobilize
and participate in full strength in the 1.10.2017 Programme of ‘International
Day of Fight for Pensioners’ called by the TUI P&R; and in the ‘Massive
Dharna’ of Pensioners on 25.10.2017 at New Delhi. The AIC also endorsed the
call of moblisation of pensioners in the massive dharna of Central TUs on 10th
November during the three days dharna of 9-11 at New Delhi in which the
pensioners of Delhi and surrounding Circles shall be mobilized in larger
numbers.
The All India Conference also
resolved to organize a Postal Pensioners Mobilization Programme in front of GM
Finance offices or Director Postal Accounts Offices or Chief PMG offices on a
Charter of Demands in the event of any undue delay caused in completing the
implementation of 12.05.2017 orders of refixation of pension. The AIC
recognized that struggles’ on the issues of Postal Pensioners is the only means
to expand the membership base of AIPRPA as the scattered Postal Pensioners are
wooed towards the organization only in the event of struggles focusing their
interest.
The importance of building a stronger
organization of AIPRPA by enrolling thousands of Postal Departmental Pensioners
was recognized by the AIC. In addition, through an amendment it had paved way
for enrolling the Postal Department Family Pensioners, Postal Department NPS
Pensioners and Postal Gramin Dak Sewaks Pensioners.
The All India Conference also
resolved to take initiative to found NCCPA COCs in States and Districts by
joining hands with other affiliates of NCCPA like AIBDPA.
The enrollment of more
subscriptions to the monthly journal of AIPRPA the ‘Pensioners Post’ and also
of the monthly of NCCPA the ‘News Letter’ was stressed by the AIC.
The AIC elected the following
Comrades as the Organization’s Advisors and the following team of Office
Bearers for the ensuing term:
Advisors: Comrades C.C.Pillai and K.V.Sridharan.
Office Bearers:
President: D.K.Rahate (Maharashtra)
Vice Presidents:
(1) T.Narasimhan
(Telangana)
(2) T.P.Mishra
(U.P)
(3) B.M.Sunda
(Rajasthan)
(4) H.V.Kurup
(Kerala)
(5) Rajendra
Prasad Varma (Delhi)
(6) K.P.Panigrahi
(Chhattisgarh)
(7) N.Nageswararao
(Andhra)
General Secretary: K.Ragavendran (Tamilnadu)
Joint Secretaries:
(1) Surinderpal
(Punjab)
(2) G.C,Joshi
(M.P)
(3) N.C.Pillai
(Kerala)
(4) R.N.Dhal
(Odisha)
(5) S.K.Humayun
(Andhra)
(6) M.Z.Khan
(Jharkhand)
(7) D.K.Debnath
(Assam)
Treasurer: Shankarpal Singh (Delhi)
Executive Committee Members:
(1) M.Krishnan
(Kerala)
(2) Mangesh
Parab (Maharashtra)
(3) Deep
Chand (Delhi)
(4) CH.V.Ramarao
(Telangana)
(5) R.Seethalakshmi
(Karnataka)
(6) Arya
Devi (Kerala)
(7) V.Janakiraman
(Karnataka)
(8) S.Santhanaraman
(Tamilnadu)
(9) S.Shanmugasundar
Raj (Tamilnadu)
(10)
V.A.Mohanan (Kerala)
(11)
B.P.Shastri Ganak (Madhyapradesh)
(12)H.L.Sidhu
(Haryana)
(13)N.D.Sharma
(Himachal)
(14)Kaushik
Chakraborti (Meghalaya)
(15)
R.K.Maipak Sana (Manipur)
(16)
H.Rangthuama (Mizoram)
(17)
Achudananda Das (Assam)
(18)
K.Rajarao (Andhra)
The All India Conference adopted
Resolutions unanimously on many issues including the following issues of
Pensioners:
(1) Policy
and Programme.
(2) Endorsing
the Programmes of TUI (P&R), NCCPA and Central TUs.
(3) Organising
a Programme on Postal Pensioners issues.
(4) Against
rejection of Option 1.
(5) Pre-2006
Pensioners issue.
(6) Filing
Court Case on Pre-2006 Pensioners issue.
(7) Medical
related issues.
(8) FMA.
(9) Delay
in implementation of GOs.
(10)Against
NPS
(11)On
Solidarity with the Central Trade Unions.
(12)
On different State Specific issues.
