LIC is a free bird!

                 'Nurturing values of freedom for generations to come' grandly states the latest Independence Day ad by LIC of India. 
        
                  Will LIC always vouch by rhetoric and never actually get down to the brass-tacks? Does it even know the meaning of freedom, its inherent values of transparency, accountability, virtues and honesty? If it did, it would have answered all my RTI questions fully and truthfully.
                   Even the CPIO (Central Office) is given to rhetoric. She stated the words 'in true letter and spirit' so many times in her reply to my RTI query and appeal, and in the Affidavit; that one would unwittingly fall for it! Except for the fact, that her replies were devoid of any 'true spirit' as the answers by LIC were vague, misleading and thoroughly unconvincing, even to the CIC. Therefore the CIC had to order LIC to produce an Affidavit. LIC gladly obliged as it was the easy way out for it. It escaped answering a majority of my questions which would have opened its Pandora's Box!
                    So LIC is a free bird, ensconced in freedom from any notions of transparency and accountability. It is free from following the laws of our nation and can act unconstitutionally, by incorporation of an 'ultra vires' clause in its Charter of Wage revision, each time (probably till eternity!). It will keep misusing its freedom with utmost impunity!
                   It does not value the freedom of its employees to leave the organization, even though the constitution guarantees it in our Fundamental Rights (as Freedom of Profession)! It wants to clips the wings of its employees by unjustly defrauding them of their hard-earned, legally rightful dues since nearly two decades. It wishes to act like a medieval Zamindar and enslave its employees like 'Bonded Labor'. And we thought that bonded labor was long abolished in India!
         
                   Are these the values that it promises to nurture for generations to come?
                   Our generation of ex-employees is shuddering at its very thought. God Forbid!
                   

SC orders LIC to reinstate temporary workers

       The TOI carried a news item in its issue dated 10th August, 2016. It states that the Supreme Court has asked LIC to reinstate the temporary workers sacked by it since 1991 and pay them 50% of their wages with retrospective effect from 1991.
       This news is heartening as it reinforces our belief that the Supreme Court will definitely order LIC to pay the resigning employees their arrears' dues and difference in retirement benefits with interest. These payments have been repudiated since 1997.
        If the temporary workers who weren't even in service since 1991 can get their dues, we who have been in service as on date of repudiation (retrospective date from which the Charter is effective); can definitely get our dues!
        In fact, the Supreme Court has declared the Clause of Repudiation (Clause 3 1 B to be ultra vires in 2008, despite which LIC persists in including it in its subsequent Wage Revision Charters (Dated 2010 and 2016). The Supreme Court must haul up LIC of India for blatant Contempt of Court and order it to pay us our hard-earned, legally rightful dues immediately; because as the adage goes, "Justice delayed is justice denied!"