Kakinada: Employees Provident Fund pensioners started an agitation in front of the EPF office here on Monday, demanding that the central government hike the minimum pension to Rs 9,000 per month.
The pensioners would observe a relay fast up to February 9. They also seek central government DA, implementation of higher option pension to all pensioners and grant of social welfare pensions too to EPF pensioners.
They demanded free medical facilities, restoration of railway concessions to all senior citizens and scrapping of the contributory pension scheme.
The state government pensioners demanded that pension be paid on the first day of every month and clear all the arrears immediately. They also wanted sanction of pending DA and issue of orders to PRC commission and sanction of interim relief.
The joint secretary of the all India coordination committee of EPF pensioners’ association of Andhra Pradesh, K Sathiraju said an EPF corpus of more than `70 lakh crore, formed from monthly contributions of workers, was laying with the central government’s Employees Provident Fund Organisation. “The government spends only 25 per cent of the interest earned for the EPS pensioners. This is against Section 41 of the Directive Principles laid down in the Constitution.”
This section guides the government to work with full capacity for betterment of elders, the disabled and sick persons. The average EPS pension in the year 2022 was a paltry `1486 per month, he said.
Sathiraju said that even if the government had spent for the pensioners the entire interest earned, the average pension would have been Rs 5,800 per month. “This is in stark contrast to the reality wherein more than 20 lakh pensioners are drawing a monthly pension between Rs 700 and Rs 1000. This privation of livelihood is in contravention of Section 39 of the Constitution.”
He said many of the persons had worked in factories and offices for around 35 years. “The government collects a tax on Goods and Services, but it is denying a decent living to those who have toiled and built this solid base for this tax collection.”
Sathiraju said that 75 lakh retired persons from the public, cooperative and private sector in the production and service sectors in 186 types of industries have united nationwide to fight for their rights.
