MeraPahad Community Of Uttarakhand Lovers

Retirement age of Government Semi-Govt. Employees
 
    What should be the age of retirement of the Government and semi-government employees? In fact it is a matter which requires a National debate. The question is pertinent especially because after retirement the present day senior citizen is proving his usefulness in so many fields. We have a huge force of highly educated and experienced senior citizens, who have been proving their worth. They can be useful in national building activities. Pensioners by and large have proved themselves in many fields. They are working in the field of Politics, social life, Journalism and in many cases assisting their siblings in their pursuits. Retiring senior citizens had a woe that they are not acceptable to the modern day children. With adequate money and medical care they have formed Senior Citizens organizations, where they are trying to look to the interest of the fellow senior citizens and other poor people. Now their problem is they want to work for the society but opportunities for them are rare. In the Army there is provision for rehabilitation of retiring employees and Officers. But there is no such provision in civil sector. The Government should come out with plans to utilize the vast amount of knowledge, experience and expertise which the senior citizens have earned during their 30-40 years career while in service. This will help the Government to formulate new and people friendly policies, after all as on date you find only senior citizens at their seventies and eighties at the helm of affairs at the National level. Naturally therefore this class of people would be an asset for the Government in Nation building activity, for which the senior citizens are prepared, because their main problem is how to utilize their time. They do not want to vile away their time for no benefit to the Nation. I have personally faced this problem. Hence I chose to become a Journalist and a socio-political worker and I have the satisfaction to say that I am useful to the society. This is the sentiment other senior citizens also want to echo and share, for which the Government should consider helping them.
 
        The matter regarding enhancement of age of retirement is out of the purview of the Pay Commission, yet the Pay Commission has suggested higher pension at age 80 and above. Yet another question is how to meet the burden of higher pay on the exchequer hence the Government has to find out the ways and means to lower down the burden of the Government by suggesting ways and means to meet out the immediate burden of the hefty pay packages which the Central Government would have to arrange. The fact is that raising the retirement age seems to be more beneficial to the Government. On retirement the employees are entitled to various benefits i.e. Provident Fund, Commutation of Pension, Leave encashment, Gratuity and Monthly Pension. The Provident Fund constitutes the heftiest amount since the employees contribute to the P.F. right from the beginning of their regular service. Naturally the amount goes beyond 1 to 3 million rupee marks. If the age of retirement is enhanced this amount would be retained by the Government at 8 percent per annum interest for 2 years.
 
    The leave encashment benefit would remain almost stationery at age 60 and 62. There would be a slight increase in the benefit. Thus the Government would retain this amount also without any increasing liability. The same is the case with Gratuity. The gratuity would also be almost the same at age 60 or 62. Here also the Government would be retaining this amount without any liability. The same is the case in case of commutation of Pension The amount payable on commutation is also almost the same The Government is not required to pay any interest on all these retirement benefits; hence it is beneficial for the Government to retain this huge money.  As regards the Pension amount, the same is payable only after retirement. In case of some employees there may be a slight increase in the amount of pension payable but in most of the cases this would not make any difference, particularly because at the time of retirement employees reach their maximum of the grades and start stagnating in the existing scale of pay. No doubt the Governments grants Time Scale and/or stagnation increment after three years service, but this won’t make much difference as the suggestion is to raise the retirement age only by 2 years.
 
    One point worth mentioning is that the employees so retained for 2 years after age 60 would be working at almost half the salary. In case they retire they would receive pension at the rate of nearly 50 percent of last pension-able emoluments. Now if they continue after 60, that means they would not receive this pension for next 2 years. The employees thus are required to work at half the salary, as in either case they would have been entitled to get pension.  For example an employee getting a pay plus D.A. of   Rs.20, 000 would be entitled to get Rs.10,000 per month as pension. Suppose he continues for the next two years, he would be receiving Rs.20,000 per month. That means he would be working at Rs.10,000 per month, as Rs.10,000 is his pension. This is highly beneficial to the Government. With longevity increasing the employees also want alternate employment after retirement. The same logic was accepted by the Government in 1996 when the age of retirement was enhanced from 58 to 60 and now the Government is feeling that the retirement age needs to be enhanced further.  Recently the teaching community has demanded raising of retirement to age 65. Raising of retirement age directly affects the employment opportunities of the younger generation. Yet another argument is after all how much employment is available in the Government sector. It is roughly 2 percent or so. In so many cases, people start working after retirement in private sector, where some of them are in great demand. They are entitled to get lucrative salaries and perks which are normally three to four times what the Government was giving them. In some cases people join politics. We have many examples of officials joining politics after retirement and successfully discharging their duties in posts such as Central Ministers, Chief Ministers and heads of various Governments, semi-government departments.  Employees have a retirement age but politicians retire only at the will of the people and stage a come back if people so desire.  Politicians normally work till death. In fact the politicians at their advanced ages work for 12 to 18 hours a day. Thus the senior citizens are helpful people and their massive experience and knowledge should be utilised for the betterment of the Nation.(D.N.Barola)
 
   
 

Snow fall at Mall Road, Ranikhet in 1973



In 1973, I used to live in Mall Road, Ranikhet. There was a massive snow fall. People used to say that this was the heaviest snow fall ever witnessed during the last so many years. I had covered the Portico by wires for the creeper flowers. Due to the massive snow fall the wires were also covered with snow. This was a spectacular sight!(D.N.Barola)

How poor are our Members of Parliament (MP)

   Our Poor MPs are ‘poorly’ paid.   How poor are our MPs is

clear from the following statistics. A MP gets only 12,000 as salary

Naturally this is not in commensurate with their aspirations. They

compare it with the salary of Chief Executive Officers and the

Secretaries of the Central Government. I got the

following statistics about the salary and perquisites of the MPs. 

1) Monthly Salary: 12,000
 
2) Expense for Constituency per month: 10,000
 
3) Office expenditure per month: 14,000

4) Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km): 48,000( e.g. For a visit from Kerala to Delhi & return: 6000 km)

5) Daily DA TA during parliament meets: 500 per day

6) Charge for Ist class (A/C) in train: Free (For any number of times)
    (All over India)

7) Charge for Business Class in flights: Free for 40 trips a year   With wife or P.A.)

Rent for MP hostel at Delhi: Free

9) Electricity costs at home: Free up to 50,000 units

10) Local phone call charge: Free up to 1, 70,000 calls.

TOTAL expense for a MP per year : 31,92,000 [i.e. . 2.66 lakh/month]

=   2 Lac 66 thousand per month.

For 770 MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha 31,92,000 X 770 =

2,45,78,40,000

    = Rs. 245 Crores, 78 Lac and 40 thousand per annum.

Expense for 5 years = 2,457,840,000 X 5 =12,28,92,00,000 i.e.

1228.92 Crores

Rs. 1228 Crore and 92 thousand

It is clear from the above that one ‘Poor’ M.P. gets only Rs. 2 66,000
 
per month, i.e. Rs. 8,867 per day or 370 Rs. per hour (whether it be

day or night).

 To maintain a MP for 5 years, the poor man’s money is spent that

comes to a staggering 1228.29 Crore rupees.(D.N.Barola)

Disaster Management or Managing the Disaster?


            Uttarakhand hills have become disaster prone zones. Uttarakhand has been experiencing Earthquakes, Landslides, Cloudburst and Motor Vehicle accidents etc. In order to meet this challenge Uttarakhand Government will have to be extra vigilant and must work on a long term foolproof plan to help people in times of any such crisis. The Uttarakhand Government should plan out mock drill or mock exercises in order to fight major disasters taking place in any corner of the State. This is necessary because situations come when there is a cloudburst or earthquake and people living at these zones become helpless victims. No body is able to help each other because every body becomes a victim of such calamity. Cloudburst is being reported very often particularly during rainy season. Are we prepared to manage this disaster?  In case of such disaster, the Government machinery is not able intervene immediately. The Government has to prepare its Disaster Management Cell to be on readiness at short notice for such eventualities. The Cell has to coordinate with different departments. The first prerequisite for managing any disaster is communication. No sooner any such disaster takes place; the Disaster Management Cell must get the information of the incident. In this age of Mobile phones, it should not be difficult. Since most of the disasters take place in the revenue police circle, it is important that the revenue police should be provided with mobile phones or other gadgets so that they can urgently communicate with the District Management Cell. The next is the Medical aid. Medical team, in near by hospitals have to be kept in 24 hour vigil for which necessary action plan must be prepared well in advance. Public Works Department, which is responsible for maintaining the Roads, has to ensure that the medical team reaches the site of Disaster as urgently as possible. Supply of eatables and clothing has also to be given priority. In order to avoid spread of epidemic potable water is also necessary. In times of such disaster the role of regular police is also important to maintain the law and order situation. Media has to be tackled properly. It should be provided with necessary information, which may help fight the disaster. It should be provided with updates, which may help fight the disaster and loopholes are plugged with the cooperation of media. Media hype should be avoided. Home Guards and Police, Fire Brigade etc. play a useful role in such cases, but a team of volunteers should also be selected. We should have a team of volunteers who may be the local residents with knowledge of the topography and the environment and the living conditions of the people. Such team can be more effective. These people should be imparted training to tackle such eventualities from time to time.
 In case of earthquake massive efforts on the part of the Government are required. Are we prepared for the same? Rescue operation on mass scale will have to be carried in case of such a calamity. Long term and short term plans must be ready with the District Management Cell, so that surviving persons may be given medical and other facilities. In order to rehabilitate the survivors’ meticulous action plan in respect of their housing food clothing and other things will have to be arranged in advance. At the same time the Govt. should enforce strict laws for construction of new buildings, which are earthquake resistant.  Naturally it will reduce the causalities. The Revenue Department should be provided with necessary budged to meet the necessary expenses during such disaster keeping in view the prevailing conditions.
 The Government has also to be watchful against the cases of corruption by those who may be managing the relief operation. For providing relief to the victims of vehicle accidents immediate and urgent medical relief is the prerequisite. The administration has to check speeding, rash driving and driving under the influence of liquor. The cooperation of the passengers in the matter of overcrowding in the vehicle will have to be taken. The authorities will have to see that disaster management itself does not become a disaster.               
   
   Recently the Government has launched a novel Scheme, under which mobile hospital facilities have been provided. You can make a phone call to No.108 and the hospital van would reach the site of accident within half an hour. This is a good step. This is helping the accident victims and people have all appreciation for this Scheme. However the Government will have to see that necessary budged is provided to this Scheme for maintenance of the Vehicle and other things.(By D.N.Barola)