Letter to SBI chairman.

[natarajan pv]

Mysore

8.4.2020

Dear Sri.Rajnish Kumar,

Appeal from the Chairman, State Bank of India

In response to your appeal addressed to the Pensioners’ Community for funds, I am reluctantly compelled to give vent to my feelings in the following paragraphs.

2. We, the SBI Pensioners considered ourselves as fortunate that we were serving the cause of the Nation with dedication and enthusiasm through SBI. We take considerable pride while reminiscing the invaluable contributions we had made ,without any technological support that is available today, towards the phenomenal growth of the Bank which had a meteoric growth from a mere 450/500 branches during our period to around 18, 000 branches when we retired. We always felt that we belonged to the SBI family until we retired. After our retirement, we were shocked to realise that the Bank disowned us and considered us as aliens, so much so that even in the Bank’s guesthouses in the notice boards it is prominently displayed that retired employees should be treated as outsiders! We also realised that under instructions from the DFS, who, as per SBI Act, have nothing to do with the day to day affairs of the Bank, was playing foul with the retirees in the matter of pension. Because of the closeness of the Bank’s Chairmen with the DFS, the Bank has lost all its cherished values. Honesty, transparency and ethics have been sacrificed at the altar of the DFS, having no locus standi in pension matters. This is apparent from the Supreme Court’s observations such as, “Once it adopted the scheme, invited applications and the employees acted upon it and retired on the basis of the scheme, they cannot be left in the lurch…..Breach of law has been committed by the Bank itself , its action is arbitrary and cannot be permitted to take advantage of its own wrong” vide paragraph 62 and , “It could not later wriggle out of its obligation taking a rigmarole by taking shelter of the Rules or by not amending the Rules, or by issuing a clarification which was fanciful, irrational and contrary to the spirit of the resolution of the Board;it would amount to an unfair and unreasonable action to deprive the employees of the benefit of pension because of the decision taken by the Central Board of Directors, vide paragraph 44 of its order dated 2.3.2020.”Supreme Court orders are willfully disobeyed with disdain and gay abandon, not expected of from an organisation of SBI’s standing.. Lawlessness became the order of the day. Your predecessor Smt.Arundhati Bhattacharya even went to the extent of destroying the Bank’s Pension regulations nullifying Supreme Court orders by misusing her powers to frame SBIEPFR2014. I list below some of the attempts I had made in trying to make you understand our problems but to no avail:-

i) As soon as you took charge as Chairman, SBI, I had sent you a communication narrating the pathetic financial conditions of the Pensioners since 1.11.1987 who have been destituted thanks to the unwillingness on the part of successive Chairmen of the Bank to adhere to the Bank’s own Pension regulations and the Supreme Court directions given to the Bank in its judgments dated 23.2.1989 and 9.10.1998. Around that time, you arranged for payment of arrears under instructions from the DFS as per the recommendations of the illegally constituted Committee (which was a euphemism for DFS) set up by it, which added to the existing anomalies in pension; the arrears were paid which had no relevance to the Pension regulations of the Bank, without appropriate dearness relief sans overdue interest. I had then pointed out to you that the amendment being put through under instructions from DFS was illegal.

ii) It was also brought to your notice that the Bank, an instrumentality of State under Article 12 of the Constitution has been discriminating between pre 1.11.2002 retirees and post 1.11.2002 retirees in the matter of payment of 100% neutralisation in DA, which, as per recommendations of the V pay commission, is payable to all retirees. The need for dearness allowance need not be overemphasised as it is meant to balance the inflation in the market place and is payable keeping in mind the All India Consumer Price Index. As an instrumentality of State, you could have yourselves decided in the matter.

iii) In the month of February 2018, the Court in Bank of Baroda &anr Vs G.Palani &ors had disapproved the actions of the PSBs in having paid pension to their retirees of VII bipartite settlement on the basis of a Joint Note dated 14.12.1999/ bipartite settlement dated 27.2.2000entered into by IBA with the representatives of Officers’ Associations/Workers’ Unions of PSBs and ordered them to pay pension as per their Pension regulations with 9% interest. Since SBI had implemented the provisions of the Joint Note/bipartite settlement dated 27.3.2000, the BOB judgment is also applicable to it and I requested you to give effect to the judgment but you wriggled out of it by paying only arrears of differential DA after nearly a year from the date of judgment and this time also the arrears were paid without 9% interest as ordered by the Court. Is the Bank so poor that it cannot pay overdue interest after enjoying the funds of poor and hapless pensioners?

3. Mr. Kumar. I am attaching a comprehensive Note on Pension. Pained at the disparaging remarks made in the recent Supreme Court judgment dated 2.3.2020, I had prepared the Note. It dwells on the need for equality of treatment among retirees, the powers of the Bank as an autonomous body, reasons why SBI should refrain from acting under instructions from DFS, why different levels of DA are impermissible, the rationale behind updation in pension etc. There is a song in Tamil, composed by the legendary Late Kannadasan where he says, “ In this world, those who have desire to help others do not have financial resources while those who have financial resources do not have the heart to help others.” The Bank which has built up funds by making provisions as per SBI Act for discharging its pension obligations does not have the HEART and magnanimity to pay the amounts to the retirees to the funds which legally belong to them. The Pensioners are feeling miserable that they are unable to make generous contributions to the Government at this hour of need as their funds have been unlawfully withheld, nay embezzled by the Bank In such a helpless situation, how would the retirees believe that in the Bank, there is a unique culture of working together? I feel Charity must begin at home. Kindly adhere to the provisions of Sections 3 (1), 17(1), 18(1), 27 (1) ,43 (1) &50(1) of the ACT and take decisions as Chairman of an autonomous body without seeking advice from the DFS. It would not be befitting the office of the Chairman of SBI to take orders in respect of routine matters like complying with court orders, payment of pension etc.Our officers, left to themselves, are far more competent than the DFS officials, whose instructions to PSBs and SBI have only landed all in a great legal mess as the recent Supreme Court judgments dated 13.2.2018 and 28.8.2019 would vouch. I do hope you would take the contents of my letter in the right spirit –the anguish of an official of the Bank who had witnessed the Bank as an institution known as stickler to rules.Pleas arrange for payment of arrears as under:-

i) Arrears of differential amounts to the extent of 50% of their average substantive monthly salary drawn the last 12 months’ pensionable service with 100%netralisation in D.A for all payable with 9%interest. ii) Arrears of updated pension, payable from 1.4.1998 to all the surviving pensioners as on that date with 9% interest.

iii) Arrears of family pension as approved by the Supreme Court in its judgment dated 23.2.1989, vide paragraph 11 ibid with 9% interest.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

P.P.R.Upadhyaya

THANKS AND REGARDS,

P.V.NATARAJAN.‌
9445021712.

[Satyanarayana Rao]

Very touching letter addressed to SBI chairman .The SBI chairman not only lacks wisdom to respect highest court orders and lacks human thinking and avoide to implement the court orders. Kudos to you sir for your wonderful presentation explaining the need to understand the plight of retirees and to respect the law and obey court orders. If 

the SBI chairman has mind and heart he will understand your advise and gain respect from all the retirees who contributed their energy for the development of the SBI. 

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[Anantharaman Tg]

This gentleman has been waging a war with the SBI higher ups

for a long time. I had come across his letters to the CEOs of SBI

and find that the grievances still persist.

I wish Sri P.P.R. Upadhyaya utilise the services of Sri C.N.Prasad

now.

Anantharaman

On Fri, 10 Apr 2020 at 10:42, 'natarajan pv' via bankpensioner <bankpe...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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[Vathsala Lakshman]

As a Bank pensioner, I wish Sri PPR Upadhyaya success in his unstinting efforts to get justice for SBI pensioners.

K.LAKSHMAN.

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[Satyanarayana Rao]

Both can meet SBI chairman and discuss all issues threadbare and resolve all issues. The paper or mail correspondence may not get proper attention and SBI chairman will be misguided by H.R.and law department so as to prolong legal battle against retirees association and gain some skin saving efforts for their mistakes. This type of attitude we have experienced while we were in service on various H .R.issues.

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[JSOMA SHEKARA]

His mind is pledged with DFS and his heart is cool enjoying salary as  chairman of SBI and perks and allowances  from IBA

and  comfort thinking of huge monthly pension in future.

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[mehtakaka .]

If he long life enjoy..so many pensioners are suffer...No humanity for pensioners...High authority only spend staff earn money..SBI logo board change and spend about 200 Crores..In past staff bring deposit from friends n relative..also help in good people loan.

Always work honestly..But at present retired senior citizen pensioners are not happy with little amount pension + Bank not following SC judgement...

Now Retired pensioners Asso. Send letter to SC..for how many banks accept judgement order and make payment?..

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