Provident fund contributions since 2002 also missing
Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, Aug 8: While the Government ordered the winding up of the J&K Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Ltd. (JAKFED) way back in 2019, the retired employees have been left to fend for themselves as the authorities have so far failed to disburse their retirement dues.
The winding up of the loss-making JAKFED was ordered by the State Administrative Council (SAC) which also decided that the employees of the federation will be provided appropriate VRS and the same will be meted out by the assets of the federation, however, so far nothing has been done in this regard.
Despite the passage of three years, neither the retirement benefits to the retirees have been paid nor has the amount of the VRS in favor of the interested, in-service employees been disbursed by the authorities.
It is to be noted here that while several employees have attained superannuation, many of them have been deputed to several other departments while nearly 60 employees are still at the JAKFED despite it having been wound up. “All the employees have been caught in a quagmire and they do not know what to do,” the employees said.
As per the details, SAC had also directed that the appointed liquidator shall prepare the inventory of the assets of the federation and take the necessary steps to realize the liabilities. However, the liquidation process was first delayed and then the recommendations were accordingly made, but the same has not been implemented so far as per the SAC decision.
Notably, the services of the employees of JAKFED are non-pensionable which means that the retired employees do not get any pension to sustain and maintain their families which makes them more dependent on the dues that continue to lie pending while nearly 22 retired employees of JAKFED have also died without seeing the disbursal of their retirement dues and provident fund.
“This attitude adopted by the concerned authorities, to delay the payment of retirement dues in favor of the retirees, has made the lives of the retired employees of JAKFED miserable,” the employees said.
What is ironic is that even the provident fund contribution deducted monthly from the salaries of the employees has not been deposited in their accounts since April 2002, making it impossible for the retired employees to withdraw the same to address their needs while the officers who were heading the JAKFED from time to time have been able to get their monthly sums deposited.
While the Registrar Cooperatives did not respond to the repeated calls from this reporter, the officials aware of the developments concerning the JAKFED said that they are working to sort out the matter which would also pave the way for the release of pending dues of the employees.
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