Vigilance Week - L.I.C of India

 In its message to all the policy-holders regarding observance of Vigilance Week, L.I.C of India states its commitment to ethics. It asks everyone to fight for rooting out corruption and take a pledge to that effect.

We, the long-suffering, resigning ex-employees of L.I.C of India request the Managing Board of Directors to take the same pledge more vigorously this year, as each year passes by without us even hearing (leave alone actually receiving) about payment of our arrears' dues which the Corporation has maliciously, illegally and unjustly repudiated!

NOT PAYING OUR LEGALLY RIGHTFUL DUES, IS CORRUPTION. IN CASE L.I.C OF INDIA DOESN'T KNOW!

EVEN NOT ACCOUNTING FOR THE REPUDIATED AMOUNTS, IS CORRUPTION AND A MALPRACTICE OF THE HIGHEST ORDER.

THUS THE CORPORATION AND  THE GOVERNMENT MUST INDULGE IN SOME SERIOUS SOUL-SEARCHING AND TAKE EFFECTIVE STEPS TO STEM THE ROT...

Hopefully then, in the current Charter this humiliation won't be imposed on the hapless resigning employees!

    In my opinion, it is not enough to just profess the COMMITMENT TO ETHICS without actually practising it. In the course of my RTI struggle to obtain information from LIC, it was amply proved that LIC has no ethics as far as its responsibility towards its resigning ex-employees is concerned.  Consider the following points:

 LIC didn't bother to reply to my registered letter for representation of my case for arrears payments, nor to my subsequent 22 emails sent for follow-up thereafter; for eight months!

LIC's CPIO(WZO) called me up on my mobile from the office number and intimidated me so that I could back off from my RTI case. He  also requested me to treat his call as "off the record". He mocked me and challenged me to file a case against LIC boasting that I would surely lose the case and that the RTI case would also be closed within 3 months.

He lied in front of the IC that he had never spoken with me, to which I retorted that he was lying. He was dumbfounded and the IC reprimanded him to be transparent in his dealings in future.

LIC expects us to approach courts for our legally rightful dues, despite a Supreme Court ruling that declares Clause 3 of the Charter to be ultra vires. This clause repudiates the arrears payable to the resigning employees.

LIC didn't answer a majority of the 21 questions in my RTI appeal. Only three questions were answered incompletely.

LIC hasn't posted my RTI details on its website as is mandated by law.

LIC has wilfully, arbitrarily and illegally deprived its resigning employees of their arrears payments and difference in retirement benefits' payments for nearly 3 decades (from 1997, to be precise!).

LIC is heartless towards its ex-employees who have served it loyally and sincerely.

LIC has avoided paying TDS to the Central Exchequer by repudiation of our wage revision arrears since two decades, thus causing the Exchequer a whopping loss of crores of rupees!

My sincere request to L.I.C of India is to examine which of the following qualities does it possess to proclaim itself as ethical in our case:

Empathy and Ethos
Trustworthiness
Honor and Honesty
Integrity
Core values, Consideration and Conscience
Soul

If even one of these is missing, it needs to do an urgent soul-searching exercise and walk the talk!
If it is indeed ethical and non-corrupt, it will immediately reimburse to all of us, our legally rightful dues.