Kolkata, March 24 Several former top executives of Coal India Ltd (CIL), its subsidiaries, and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd have sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to revise the pension for retired employees, pointing out that it "remains constant forever".
Former CIL director (technical), Binay Dayal, who signed the letter, said on Tuesday that 75 former chairpersons, managing directors, and directors of the public sector undertakings (PSUs) have written to the prime minister on this issue.
In the letter dated March 23, the former executives said that the pension fixed at the time of retirement remains "constant forever without any adjustment for rising prices", leaving many retired miners struggling.
They alleged mismanagement of the Coal Mines Pension Scheme (CMPS)-1998 corpus and suboptimal investment decisions as the root cause of the pension amount remaining static, pointing out that the Public Accounts Committee had highlighted these shortcomings in its 12th report.
Despite the government's stated commitment to review and restructure the scheme, no corrective action had followed, the letter claimed.
The former executives noted that CIL and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) together meet over 55 per cent of the country's commercial energy needs and generate more than Rs 70,000 crore annually for the national exchequer.
"Coal pensioners are not seeking charity or sympathy. They are only requesting the restoration of their rightful dues – fair returns on their own contributions as assured under the CMPS-1998 scheme, which unfortunately remains unfulfilled," said P K Singh Rathor, the convenor of All India Association of Coal Executives (AIACE) and the All India Coal Pensioners Association (AICPA).
The signatories include five former CIL chairpersons – S K Chowdhary, Prasenjit Kumar Sen Gupta, Partha S Bhattacharyya, Nirmal Chandra Jha and Anil Kumar Jha – former CMDs of subsidiary companies, and directors across technical, finance, personnel, and marketing functions.