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Even after 40 years after its inception, the employees of the National Agricultural Bank for Rural Development (Nabard) complain of a pension anomaly that puts them in a disadvantageous position when compared to their peers in the Reserve Bank of India.
They compare their salaries, benefits and pension with that of the peers in the RBI because a large portion of its employees (3,000) were hired from the apex bank when the Nabard was conceived in 1981.
The pensions are not being revised on the implementation of new pay scale for the regular employees, keeping the pension slabs very low.
The staff argue that increasing pensions would not cause any additional burden to the exchequer as the Nabard had a pension corpus of about ₹4,500 crore.
“While encouraging some of us to join the Nabard, we were given the assurance that we will be given salaries, perks and superannuation benefits on par with the RBI staff. But our hopes are dashed as we are saddled with a lower pension slab,” P Mohanaiah, who worked as a General Manager of Nabard (Andhra Pradesh), told BusinessLine .
On Monday, hundreds of serving and retired employees of the Nabard organised dharnas in different parts of the country, demanding revision of their pension on par with their peers in the RBI.
The Nabard was carved out of the RBI by an Act of Parliament, by replacing three of its departments – Agricultural Credit Department (ACD), Rural Planning and Credit Department (RPCD) and Agricultural Refinance and Development Department (ARDC) – to give a focussed approach to promote agriculture and rural development.
The protesting employees claimed that there was a huge disparity between the retired employees of Nabard and that of the RBI.
“The promises have not been kept and the provisions in Nabard Act have not been respected,” Mohanaiah said.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had directed the Union Government in November 2019 to take a decision in four months.
“The government is yet to take a call. We are contemplating to move a contempt petition,” a senior functionary of the United Forum of Officers, Employees and Retirees of Nabard, said.
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