Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 6: A number of permanent employees in Jammu University, recruited after January 1, 2010, under New Pension Scheme, have not yet been provided their Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) even as the university has been deducting share of their contribution from the monthly salary.
Laxity on the part of JU authorities is now turning into harassment to the aggrieved employees, who have been officially ‘warned’ that they would be deprived of income tax rebate on the deducted amount of their salary, which the Jammu University claims to have deposited in banks.
A formal communiqué in this regard was issued by the Accounts Section of JU this week to the employees without PRAN even as they have submitted the application forms twice with the university Establishment Wing for the purpose.
The official warning has triggered a strong resentment among the affected staff, mostly non-gazetted and class IV employees, who are suffering because of no fault of theirs but the university authorities.
According to the official sources, the employees under New Pension Scheme could not get their PRAN because of some technical reasons and lack of coordination between JU and the Kashmir based concerned agency, which did not perform its job as per the requirement. Later, this agency claimed that the application forms had got washed away in 2014 floods and thereafter the employees were recently asked to submit application forms afresh.
Even as Jammu University claims that share of the staff was regularly being deposited in the bank for transferring the same to respective employee’s PRAN as and when it is allotted, the recent communiqué of the Accounts Section has triggered the controversy and exposed the lack of coordination among different sections of the university.
Instead of seeking a clarification from the Establishment Wing on delay in getting the PRAN of left over employees, the Accounts Section directly wrote to the concerned employees warning no tax rebate on their deduction, sources explained.
Laxity on the part of concerned official can be gauged from the fact that deducted share an employee, who joined the JU services two years back and was already having a PRAN while working previously with another organization, was also not deposited in his Retirement Account Number despite a forma, request for the same by him.
When contacted, JU Registrar, Prof Keshav Sharma said that majority of the employees have been provided with PRAN and the process was on to ensure that the left over can also get the same as early as possible.
Pertinent to mention that the New Pension Scheme was implemented in Jammu and Kashmir from January 1, 2010 for all the employees recruited. since that date. The NPS is on the pattern of Central Government, which too has done away with the pension and set up a statutory body for the employees to avail themselves of pensionary benefits on their own. It is almost similar on the pattern of Contributory Provident Fund (CPF), which is binding on Public Sector Undertakings, limited companies and organizations employing more than 10 people.
Under the NPS, an employee contributes 10 per cent from his salary. An equal amount is contributed by the Government and deposited in the employee’s account with the Pension Fund Development and Regulatory Authority (PFDRA). The pensioner can draw the pension anywhere from designated post offices and banks.
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