Implement option No.1 as per the pension fitment formula as recommended by the 7th CPC.

The 7^th CPC in appreciation of the demand placed by the Central Govt. Employees, Officers & Pensioners organisations jointly had recommended two distinct methodology of Pension revision leaving it to the beneficiaries to choose whichever is beneficial to them.  The entire pension community was highly appreciative of the said recommendation and pleaded for the acceptance thereof to the Government. 

 Unfortunately the Pension Department advised the Government not to accept Option No.1 on the ground that it was not feasible to be acted upon. The Government heeding to the said advice accepted the recommendation and issued notification in which it was specified that the acceptance of the Government of the 7^th CPC suggestion is subject to its feasibility of implementation.  The subjective clause in the Notification was without precedence and appeared to be strange.

 In order to meet out the objections from large number of Pensioners, a Committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary of the same Pension Department was set up.   The Committee made the same recommendation to the effect that the suggestion of the 7^th CPC contained in Option No.1 was not feasible. They however suggested to the Government an alternative formulation to replace the recommendation of the 7^th CPC.  This was primarily to benefit the officials in organised Group A service, where career progression was time bound. 

In a written submission made to the Committee, we pleaded for offering all the three alternatives so that the pensioner would be able to choose whichever was beneficial to them.  The Committee’s conclusion that option No. 1 was not feasible was flawed in as much as the document, which the official side affirmed as the bare necessity to implement Option No. 1 was available in the case of 86% of the pensioners, even according to the Committee’s own finding.  The Committee’s report was heavily one sided and was conceived to favour a section of the pensioners, especially those who retired from the higher echelons of the bureaucracy. 

If the third alternative, which was accepted and implemented, had benefited pensioners who had retired from the lower rungs of the hierarchy, it was incidental.  Our submission before your goodself is that the Government, having accepted the recommendation of the 7^th CPC must implement the same.  The feasibility or otherwise of the recommendation must be subjected to critical scrutiny.  The Committee’s finding that the Pay Commission’s recommendation was not feasible had been made to enable them to put before the Government the third alternative.  There is no difficulty in disproving the Committee’s findings on the question of “feasibility”.   A large number of pensioners would have been benefited and the question of parity between the past and present pensioners would have been properly addressed.

(Excerpts from the memorandum submitted to Hon'ble Prime Minister by NCCPA)