More than 50,000 coal pensioners with pension below Rs 1,000

The pension amount has remained unchanged for the last 25 years, Singareni Retired Employees Welfare Association, Hyderabad, president D Ramchander Rao said

Hyderabad: Coal pensioners are demanding the Centre to review and revise their pension under the Coal Mines Pension Scheme (CMPS), 1998. The pension amount has remained unchanged for the last 25 years, Singareni Retired Employees Welfare Association, Hyderabad, president D Ramchander Rao said, adding that there were around 50,000 pensioners from coal companies across the country receiving less than Rs.1000 per month.

“If, for example, a pensioner received Rs.1,000 per month in 1998 as per the scheme, they are still receiving that same amount even now,” Ramchander Rao said.

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“We have written to the President and Prime Minister on behalf of the pensioners seeking their intervention in the matter and to review CMPS-1998 and our pensions,” Rao said.

Requesting the government to review and revise the pension, Rao said it would be very useful for their medical and health expenses and to meet their family needs if the government resolved the issue as soon as possible.

In fact, the Centre too has admitted this. According to a recent answer given in the Lok Sabha by Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi, “no revision has taken place in the pension provided to retired employees of Singareni Collieries and other coal companies covered under Coal Miners Pensions Scheme 1998 since it came into force on 31st day of March, 1998, due to wide gap between contribution to the fund and pension disbursement.”