Pensioners urge LG for removal of disparity in pension payment

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 7: The J&K UT Pensioners & Civil Society Association Jammu has appealed Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to remove the pension payment disparity by issuing necessary amendment in the State Pension Rules.
In a statement, issued here today, the Association general secretary N D Sharma said that having same scale of pay at the time of retirement, the pre 1-1-2016 state pensioners are getting less pension whereas the 20 years qualifying service pensioners are getting more pension.
While elaborating, he said that the J&K Government has divided the state pensioners into four different service categories of 33, 30, 28 and 20 years qualifying services to get their pension after retirement from Government service whereas the Central Government has fixed one category of their pensioners with 20 years qualifying services only with effect from 1-1-2016.
“In J&K, the pre 1-1-2016 pensioners have been placed in 33, 30 and 28 years qualifying upto 27-04-2017 and after 27-04-2017, all state pensioners have been placed in 20 years qualifying service category. By doing so, the pre 1-1-2016 state pensioners have more qualifying services of 32, 29 and 27 years than 20 years of post 27-04-2017 pensioners, who are getting lesser pension due to the pro-rate basis pension formula of `one rank one pension’,” he explained.
Seeking removal of the disparity, the Association has appealed Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to personally intervene into the matter and issue necessary instructions for the same.