M A I L B A G

Flaws in pension scheme for private college teachers

THE Punjab Government’s proposed pension scheme for the staff working in private colleges has at least, three major flaws.

First of all, many of the teachers and non-teaching staff who have retired since 1996 (year of implementation of the scheme) opted for pension at the time of retirement but have already spent their share of the contributory provident fund (CPF) which the government now wants to include in the corpus fund being created for pension.

Secondly, the government has no role to play if the employees are to use their own funds for pension. The LIC and other organisations have a much better record of managing funds than the government, which is perennially bankrupt due to the misuse of funds and corrupt practices. Nothing better can be expected of the present government, which claims it has no money but spends lakhs on the renovation of houses of ministers.

Thirdly, unlike the previously approved schemes, the newly proposed pension scheme has never been discussed with the various unions representing the staff and managements of the colleges concerned.

DEEP INDER, Hoshiarpur

Y.P. MAKKER, Malout

A joke: The Captain has shown a praise-worthy gesture of goodwill to his ex-army comrades. We expect him to be equally considerate to the teachers who are asking for quite a legitimate gesture of benevolence. Let the Captain earn their goodwill rather than letting the issue become a standard joke and thus demoralise the nation builders.

J.S. JOGI, Sarhali

Shirks responsibility: The new scheme clearly reveals that the Congress government wants to shirk away from its own promise and responsibility. It is a great affront to the agitating and restless teaching community.

K.K. KHOSLA, Ludhiana

Limit adjournments

There should be a limit to adjournments in legal cases involving a person’s career & source of livelihood. Lawyers seldom come prepared and, therefore, seek adjournments. They are always on the look for out for new cases and clients, and do not care for the losses of there old clients. Lawyers who ask for adjournments beyond a limit must be reprimanded and fined.

The cases should be categorised and a time limit imposed for a decision. If courts and lawyers fail in their responsibility, the losses of petitioners be made good from the defaulter lawyers and judges.

K.C. GUPTA, Kurali

Media & scams

On the completion of 100 days in office, Capt Amarinder Singh and his team deserve encomiums for taking the bull of corruption by the horns.

The magnitude of all these scams is mind-boggling and incredible. The sequence of events during the period suggest clearly and candidly that the media is one of the important pillars of democracy, if it plays its cards well.

The whole system stands subverted. Quite conceivably, the public is still sceptical about the success of any of these cases. They perceive that the perpetrators of these heinous offences will go unpunished, at the end of the day, if the past is any indication. This is an unhealthy development. The people have lost faith in the apparatus of the government, for there is stink of corruption in every walk of life and more so in high places. This impression needs to be wiped out and confidence restored in the government and its limbs.

HARI RAM PURI, Shimla

One rank, one pension for ex-servicemen THE demand for one rank one pension (OROP) of ex-servicemen dates back to 1982. Three Prime Ministers of India and all major political parties in their election manifestoes had promised OROP to the ex-servicemen over the years. Mr R. Venkataraman, the then President of India, committed to the acceptance of OROP in his address to joint session of Parliament in 1989. Defence Minister George Fernandes made an announcement at Anandpur Sahib in April, 1999 that the long-pending demand of OROP of ex-servicemen has been accepted by the Central Government and its implementation was “now a matter of only a few days”. Almost three years have passed but nothing has happened. Due to early forced retirement in order to keep the Army young, about 94 per cent of personnel up to the rank of Naik/Subedar retire with 17 to 20 years of service and they get wrongly 33 per cent of their emoluments as pension instead of 50 per cent of maximum of rank because of conditionality of 33 years of service to qualify for full pension. Another very serious anomaly in case of officers having running pay scales, the pension is assessed on the minimum of rank even though they had rendered full service to entitle them to the maximum pension of the rank. This is a raw deal for ex-servicemen and is totally unjust. It is ridiculous, irrelevant and illogical to compare the terms and conditions of defence service with those of civilian government employees. Wg Cdr GURMAIL SINGH (retd), Chandigarh

Sack of officers

In the recent PPSC scam the Chief Minister is supposed to have decided to remove from service all officers selected in a batch even if one candidate is found to be tainted. This is a very peculiar decision, to make everyone suffer for the crime of an odd culprit. Why the innocents should suffer and why government should not target the culprits only?

Secondly, on the same line if after Assembly/Parliament elections one or more MLA/MP is found to have used corrupt means, then will the Chief Minister agree to the disqualification of the whole lot of MLAs/MPs of that party?

Thirdly, if a young medical graduate had to pay a hefty amount of bribe to get into the PCMS, then I am sure he/she would prefer to spend that money to get a seat for a post-graduate degree in a private institution and become a specialist. To conclude, the Punjab Government should take action against those where proof is found and not to make all the officers suffer.

Maj Gen (Dr) TIRATH SINGH (retd), Jalandhar

Why scrap selections?

The move to scrap all the 3,446 selections made during Mr Ravi Sidhu’s tenure is arbitrary, unconstitutional, unjust and against the principles of natural justice. Merely on the basis of doubt and Dheera’s disclosures, such a big scrap will be a murder without trial.

Antar Jyoti Ghai,  Ludhiana

Ailing power house

The people of the areas of Katra Ahluwalia, Chowk Fawara, Golden Temple Road and adjoining localities falling under Amritsar’s Ghee Mandi sub-division (power house) have been facing frequent undeclared power cuts and failures for the last many months. It seems that the Ghee Mandi (sub-division) power house is ailing with some chronic problem. The PSEB authorities are requested to take remedial steps to rectify the problem.

Shopkeepers of Chowk Katra Ahluwalia, Amritsar

“Aql hairaan hai”

Apropos of Randhir Singh Dheera’s statements under Section 164 of the Cr PC before the Judicial Magistrate, revealing the names of the candidates who paid money to get selected to the PCS and other posts and those of some other persons involved in the PPSC recruitment scam, I am reminded of the following Urdu verse:

Chhera jo tazkira-e-maikashaan to saaqi ney

Kuchh aisey naam liyey hain ke aql hairaan hai

(“Tazkira-e-maikashaan” means, literally, mention of boozers and, figuratively, the persons involved in the PPSC recruitment scam).

BHAGWAN SINGH, Qadian