FIRST STATE CONFERENCE OF AIPRPA TAMILNADU STATE

TAMIL NADU STATE CONFERENCE OF AIPRPA

The first State Conference of All India Postal & RMS Pensioners Association of Tamilnadu State was held at Pavadi Sengunthar Kalyana Mandapam in Salem City on 22.12.2013. The State Conference was commenced after hoisting the National Flag by senior leader of Postal movement Comrade A.G.Pasupathy; AIPRPA Flag hoisted by Vice Chairman of All India Steering Committee of AIPRPA Comrade T.Narasimhan; and the NCCPA flag was hoisted by the Secretary General of NCCPA & BCPC Comrade S.K.Vyas.

Former Circle Secretary R3[NFPE] & State Steering Committee Member Comrade M.Kannaiyan presided over the state conference. Comrade N.Shanmugam District Secretary of AIPRPA Salem delivered welcome address. All special guests and leaders were honoured by the Reception Committee. Thereafter Comrade S.K.Vyas Secretary General of NCCPA and Standing Committee Member of JCM National Council inaugurated the conference with his valuable address. Comrade M.Kannaiyan subsequently delivered his presidential address of the Conference.

Comrades T.Narasimhan [Vice Chairman AIPRPA]; Y.Nagabhushanam [All India Steering Committee Member]; N.L.Sridharan [President of the Coordinating Committee of Central, State Government and Public Sector Pensioners Organisations Tamilnadu]; A.Sundaram [Secretary of the Coordinating Committee of Central, State Government and Public Sector Pensioners Organisations Tamilnadu]; C.K.Narasimhan [State Secretary of BSNL & DOT Pensioners Association]; S.Ragupathy [Assistant Secretary General NFPE]; R.Chandraprakash [CHQ President BPEF P3]; N.Gopalakrishnan [CHQ Working President AIPEU Group ‘C’]; A.C.Dharanipathy [former CHQ President of AIPSA]; S.Thangarajan [former Circle President FNPO P4]; S.Pandian [Leader of Madurai Regional Postal Pensioners Organisation]; and M.Sudhakaran [President of Coimbatore Central Government Pensioners Association] addressed the Conference in the Open session.

The Subjects Committee commenced in the afternoon. Comrade K.Ragavendran Convenor of the State Steering Committee of AIPRPA delivered an introductory address. Delegates mainly the District Secretaries of various district / divisional AIPRPA organisations took part in the discussion.

The State Conference elected the following office bearers for the organisation:

AIPRPA – TAMIL NADU STATE

Patron:                                 A.G.Pasupathy

Advisor:                               K.V.Sridharan

LIST OF OFFICE BEARERS

State President:               M.Kannaian - Chennai

State Working Presidents:         

1.       P.Rajanayagam – Kanyakumari

2.       S.Sadasivam [Thanjai Sadasivam] - Thanjavur

3.       R.Chandraprakash – Chennai

4.       A.C.Dharanipathy – Chennai

5.       S.Thangarajan – Chennai

6.       G.C.Narasimhalu – Tambaram

State Vice Presidents:

1.       D.Ramachandran – Chennai

2.       M.R.Meenakshisundaram – Chennai

3.       R.Muthu - Pondy

4.       D.Sivagurunathan – Chennai

5.       L.Purushothaman – Chennai

6.       P.Shanmugam – Chennai

7.       V.Venkatarangan – Chennai

8.       G.Rajamani – Chennai

9.       R.Masilamani – Chennai

10.   K.Sivaraman – Chennai PSD

11.   V.Gnanasambandam – Chengalpattu

12.   A.Mani - Kancheepuram

13.   R.Kanagavel – Salem

14.   S.Swaminathan – Mayiladuturai

15.   P.Sathiyamurthy - Pattukottai

16.   A.Dhatshinamoorthy – Tiruchirappalli

17.   R.Murugesan - Erode

18.   I.Subramanian – Kancheepuram

19.   G.Krishnan – Nellai

20.   N.Radhakrishnan - Tiruvannamalai

21.   M.Chidambaram -  Vellore

State General Secretary:              K.Ragavendran – Chennai

State Assistant General Secretaries:

1.       R.Natarajan – Pondy

2.       N.Selvan – Tiruchirappalli

3.       V.Rajaram – Dindigul

4.       K.Shanmuga Sundara Raj – Tirunelveli

5.       N.Shanmugham – Salem

6.       R.Aravindan - Chennai

7.       T.Mani – Namakkal

8.       P.Sangu – Dharmapuri

9.       P.Subburaj – Kovilpatti

10.   S.Karunanidhi – Coimbatore

11.   P.Thiruvengadam – Vridhachalam

12.   C.Sekar – Chennai

13.   P.Mani – Chennai

14.   N.Karuppusamy – Tirupur

State Finance Secretary:                           S.Santhanaraman – Vellore

State Assistant Finance Secretary:           G.Kumar – Chennai

State Organising General Secretaries:

1.       N.Ramasamy – Erode

2.       T.Nagappan – Tirupur

3.       S.Durai - Chennai    

4.       B.Ragunathan – Chennai

5.       N.Avudaiyappan – Tirunelveli

6.       Syed Saleem – Vridhachalam

7.       A.Maruthai – Dindigul

8.       C.Arjunan – Salem

9.       Stalin Sargunam - Erode

10.     P.Subramanian – Dharmapuri
11.    S.Govindarajan - Tiruchirappalli
12.    A.Chandran - Kancheepuram

Resolutions adopted:

1.        Resolution on Pensioners Demands: A resolution on many pensioners’ demands was adopted by the State Conference. It covered among other issues 1) Framing the terms of reference of 7^th Pay Commission by the Government with the issue of the Pensioners for protecting the parity of pension between the past, present and future pensioners and that the need for close cooperation between the Pensioners Organisations and the JCM National Council Organisations to ensure inclusion of this issue in the terms of reference; 2) Since the PFRDA legislation adopted by the Parliament is against the spirit of the Supreme court judgment that declared the right to pension as a fundamental right, the anti-worker and anti-pensioner law must be withdrawn by the Government; 3) The Defined Pension Scheme must be extended to all government employees recruited on or after 1.1.2004 and the three lakhs of Postal Gramin Dak Sewaks must also be brought under the Defined Pension Scheme and 50% of service rendered by Casual Labourers should be counted for Pension; for the GDS who are recruited as Postman or MTS should be give full benefit of GDS service for pension; 4) The anomalies between the pension fixation for pensioners and pay fixation for employees by the 6^th CPC are to be removed and the National Anomaly committee should come forward quickly to sort out all the pension anomalies arose after implementation of 6^th CPC; 5) The action of Central Government in filing a revision petition to contest the verdict of the Delhi Principal Bench of CAT on issues of pre-2006 pensioners after losing the case in all the Courts up to the Supreme Court earlier is retrograde and therefore the Government should immediately withdraw the revision petition and implement the Delhi CAT judgment w.e.f 1.1.2006; 6) The Government should come forward to take the highest pay scale of the different merged pay scales by Pay Commissions for determining the minimum pension to Pensioners; 7) The Government should take a quick decision on the item pending in the National Council for extending the benefit of MACP w.e.f 1.1.2006 for those retired between 1.1.2006 and 31.08.2008 and also to modify the MACP Scheme in accordance with the judgment of Jodhpur CAT for granting the I, II & III MACP in the higher cadre to which the official has been elevated on the basis of ‘Selection’ and not on the basis of seniority-cum-fitness; 8) In the background of revision of percentage of commutation by the 6^th CPC, the Government should come forward to revise the period of commutation from 15 years to 12 years keeping the spirit of judgment of Supreme Court to protect the pensioners from incurring heavy loss to the tune of several thousands of rupees; 9) Instead of referring the issue of merger of 50% DA and DR with basic pay / besic pension from 1.1.2011 to the 7^th CPC, the Government should come forward to do so before constituting the 7^th Pay Commission; 10) House Rent Allowance, Leave Travel Concession, Festival Advance, Right to allotment of vacant Staff Quarters for accommodation should be granted to Pensioners; 11) In the pattern of Tamilnadu State Government a scheme of Pensioner’s Family Relief Fund should be formulated for the Central Government Pensioners also and on the death of a  pensioner the family shall be granted a sum of 1,00,000/- as relief; 12) The adamancy of Government to deny to enhance the FMA to at least of 1200/- per month and enhancing to a meagre amount of 300/- per month in the background of high prices of medicines and consultation fees should be given  up and a realistic stand in commensurate with the market realities on enhancement of FMA should be taken by the Government; 13) The Government’s approach of killing the CGHS slowly and converting the whole system into a system of medical insurance is retrograde; the Government should revise their stand and come forward to establish CGHS wellness centres in all district centres in the country as well as earmark at least one quality hospital in each district for cashless medical treatment to pensioners by expanding the CGHS through adequate budgetary allocations and bring all the desiring Pensioners under the ambit of CGHS without any distinction or discrimination; and 14) The order of the Government for issue of photo identity cards to Pensioners by the respective department should be further liberalised to ensure free issue of identity cards to all pensioners without insisting to bear the cost of identity card preparation; 15) The Government should impelement all judgments in favour of Pensioners without unnecessarily appealing in higher courts and should extend the benefit for all similarly placed pensioners.

In addition to the above resolutions, some more resolutions on pensioners demands were moved by the Delegates in the Conference which are being wetted by the Secretariat of the State Organisation for processing and they will be published later.

2.        Resolution of Organisation: A resolution on ‘Organisation’ was unanimously adopted by the State Conference. This organisational resolution contains three parts viz., to strengthen the All India Postal & RMS Pensioners Association in all districts of Tamilnadu State; to work for strengthening the NCCPA as an organisation of united platform of all Central Government Pensioners Organisations for dealing the issues with the Central Government unitedly including to prepare and present a common memorandum to the 7^th CPC;  to work in the direction of founding a Confederation of all Pensioners Organisations of Central Government, State Government and Public Sectors for conducting joint action and for maintaining coordination in the efforts to defend the social security including pensionery right that are under serious attack under the liberalisation regime. In this background this resolution resolved to mobilse hundreds of our postal and RMS pensioners to participate in the one-day Grand Dharna on pensioners issues at Chennai on 18^th February, 2014 as per the call and decision of the 4^th December All Pensioners Organisations’ Demands Conference. Similarly this resolution hailed the decision of the BCPC / NCCPA to conduct a National Pensioners Convention by all Pensioners Organisations in New Delhi on 24.02.2014 and decided to participate in all such activities of BCPC / NCCPA / Coordinating Committee of Central, State Government &Public Sector Pensioners Organisations of Tamilnadu State.

Finance:

The State Conference called upon the District / Divisional AIPRPA units to remit quota to the State Organisation and CHQ Organisation of AIPRPA @ 50/- per member  per year to both these higher bodies, which shall be adjusted as per the final decision of the All India Special Conference while framing the Constitution / By-law. The call evinced immediate response in the Conference Hall itlself and the following District / Divisional AIPRPA Unites remitted quota as follows:

1.        Chennai District: 15,000/- to State & 15,000/- to All India Steering Committee [CHQ].

2.        Tirupur District: 8,500/- to State & 8,500/- to All India Steering Committee [CHQ]

3.        Vellore District: 6,000/- to State.

4.        Chengalpattu Division: 1,000/- to State.

Thanks to the Reception Committee of AIPRPA and Unions:

The decision of the State Steering Committee to conduct the State Conference in the month of December, 2013 has been executed well by the Reception Committee of Salem District AIPRPA. The Conference venue as per the requirement; the banners welcoming the leaders and projecting the information about the State Conference exhibited outside the Conference venue; the catering arrangement; all other arrangements for the stay of leaders and delegates reached on the previous night itself were all taken excellent care by the Reception Committee formed by the Salem District AIPRPA. The Reception Committee was fully assisted by the leaders and active cadres of all NFPE Unions of Salem City. All the delegates were extremely happy over the arrangements and have returned with maximum enthusiasm. The State AIPRPA expresses its hearty thanks to the entire Reception Committee and Divisional Unions of Salem.