Chhattisgarh Insurance pensioners participate in 2-hour nation-wide dharna

Raipur (Team Newsbuddy): On the call of All India Insurance Pensioners Association, insurance pensioners staged a 2-hour dharna in front of LIC offices across the country regarding their demands and submitted a memorandum to the management in the name of the Union Finance Minister. This dharna program was supported by the serving employees’ organization All India Insurance Employees Association and during the lunch break, serving employees registered their participation in the dharna demanding immediate action on the demands of the pensioners.

Addressing the dharna organized at LIC’s Raipur divisional office, General Secretary of Central Zone Insurance Employees Association. Dharmaraj Mohapatra alleged that due to the policies of the Central Government, pensioners are continuously getting worse. Therefore, on the issue of improving pension, we will have to confront the Central Government as well, apart from the LIC management. He strongly opposed both the NPS and UPS schemes, demanding the implementation of the 1995 pension scheme for all in LIC.

He demanded that the benefit of cash mediclaim should be provided to LIC pensioners in case they get medical treatment at home, the facility of preventive health check-up should be provided, dearness allowance should be provided to all pensioners at a uniform rate, the ex-gratia amount of pensioners who retired before 1986 should be increased, the mediclaim scheme should be improved, an option should be provided to everyone including ex-servicemen and engineers to join the 1995 pension scheme, ex-gratia amount should be provided to all pensioners without any discrimination and the pension should be updated within a fixed period. Mahapatra also demanded a one-time increase of 30 percent in the family pension scheme in the general insurance sector and an increase in the management’s contribution from 10 to 14 percent for the people covered under the new pension scheme. Today’s successful protest program was presided over by the divisional president of the Pensioners Association, Comrade Shrikant Pendharkar.