The hopes of crores of central employees and pensioners of the country regarding the 8th Pay Commission have now started rising. Meanwhile, 'Bharat Pensioners' Society' (BPS) has put forward some such demands before the Commission, which everyone is surprised to hear. The organization has made a explosive proposal to directly increase the minimum basic salary of employees to ₹ 69,000 and the minimum pension to ₹ 45,000. Recently, a delegation of Bharat Pensioners Society met the officials of the 8th Pay Commission, in which BPS President RK Chauhan and General Secretary Avinash Rajput were prominently involved. In this high-level meeting, many big suggestions have been made related to employees' salary, pension, dearness allowance (DA) and health facilities. However, it is important to clarify that at present these are only recommendations of the organization, which are yet to be finalized.
Proposal to make minimum pension ₹ 45,000 and basic salary ₹ 69,000
Bharat Pensioners' Society (BPS) has suggested a massive increase in the current minimum pension of ₹9,000 directly to ₹45,000, meaning the organization wants a dramatic increase of almost five times in the minimum pension. Along with this, it has also been suggested that the minimum pension should be 67% of the last salary received at the time of retirement and family pension should be 50% of the last salary.
On the other hand, there has been a demand to increase the current minimum basic salary of central employees which is currently ₹ 18,000 to ₹ 69,000. Behind this the organization has proposed a fitment factor of 3.83. If this fitment factor is approved, there will be a bumper jump in salaries. However, this does not at all mean that this amount has been finalized, it is just a big demand of the employee organizations.
Demand for major changes in the rules of family calculation and DA-DR
Along with the big demands, BPS has made a unique suggestion of increasing the family unit from 3 to 5.2 for determining the minimum wage. Under this, a formula has been kept to consider the employee as 1 unit, spouse as 1 unit, two children as 0.8-0.8 units and two elderly parents as 0.8-0.8 units.
Apart from this, major changes have also been wanted regarding Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR). At present the government revises DA/DR twice a year i.e. in January and July, but BPS wants it to be changed every three months and the calculation should be on the average data of three months. Also, it has been demanded that when DR exceeds 25%, it should be merged into the basic pension.
Better health facilities for pensioners and introduction of Bharat Pensioners Society
Keeping in mind the health of pensioners, BPS has strongly demanded to provide cashless healthcare facility across the country for pensioners living in rural areas and away from CGHS facilities. Along with this, a suggestion has also been made to give a fixed medical allowance of ₹ 5,000 every month. Besides, it has also been said to resolve the pending issues of BSNL pensioners.
Let us tell you that 'Bharat Pensioners Society' was established in January 1955. It is a major organization in the country that voices the interests of pensioners and claims to be recognized by the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare and NITI Aayog. According to the organization, there are about 245 pensioners associations associated with it and it represents about 10 lakh pensioners of the country.