Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Thursday, 31 August 2023
A Relationship of Trust - L.I.C of India, 1st September, 2023
Today is L.I.C of India's 67th Anniversary. It is also 26 years since it has broken our trust in the Corporation by betraying us, resigning ex-employees. The Corporation has been wilfully, illegally, arbitrarily and unconstitutionally repudiating the arrears payments due on wage revision; to its resigning ex-employees, since 1997.
These payments are applicable to all employees of the Corporation as a class of employees; as per the Supreme Courts directives.
Despite a Supreme Court ruling that states that L.I.C cannot create two different classes of employees for the above-mentioned payments, one that is eligible to receive and the other ineligible to receive; the unscrupulous Corporation does just that, during every Charter that is announced for Wage Revision.
It does so, through a clause which has been declared as 'ultra vires' (unconstitutional) by the Supreme Court in 2007. Thus it acts in a "Contempt of Court" manner, brazenly defying the laws of our nation.
I have recently written a letter to the Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modiji to ensure that we get justice. We should be given our dues with compound interest. I haven't yet received any reply for that letter sent by Registered A.D. Nor have I received any confirmation regarding receipt of my email that I sent as a reminder to him as well as the P.M.O's office.
It is dejavu for me again, after my long R.T.I struggle to get replies from the Corporation regarding its wrongdoings and getting insincere, half-baked replies to only 3 out of my 21 questions. The same Corporation that rattles off statistics about its growth and performance on various parameters, at the drop of a hat; curiously evaded giving me replies to basic questions such as the total number of employees whose arrears had been repudiated as well as the huge amounts repudiated illegally since 1st August, 1997. No reason exists on its records, for such repudiation! So it is arbitrary.
So the Central Government's silence proves that those whom we rely on for justice, will keep on betraying us or ignoring us as if we don't exist at all!
I hope that the Honorable Prime Minister, with his usual "Can Do" attitude, has set things rolling for our payments...
It is downright shameful when L.I.C of India claims today that "Trust is the foundation of any relationship... On our 67th Foundation Day, we thank you all for trusting us at every stage of your life and giving us the responsibility to protect and fulfil your dreams," yet keeps vital information and our legally rightful dues out of our reach! Doesn't it have any responsibility toward us? The fact that it is a premier government owned life insurance company, makes its cavalier attitude more unwarranted.
All of us had also worked for many years in the Corporation to just be deprived of our dues when we needed them the most. I had worked sincerely for 18.5 years.
We, the long-suffering, resigning ex-employees of L.I.C of India request the Managing Board of Directors to kindly take a wise and just decision to pay us all our dues with compound interest and then make such tall statements of platitude. Or else this day will always remind us of our tremendous loss and the Corporation's unscrupulous gain at our expense!
"Ek Atoot Rishta Bharose Ka" shouldn't just remain in print, in an advertisement in The Times of India, but should be implemented in actual practice!
Kindly reinstate our trust in L.I.C of India.
For those of you who would like to have all details regarding my lone crusade since 2010, for justice for myself as well as others sailing in the same boat as me; please peruse my blog at uberrimafideslicindia.blogspot.com.
Thursday, 10 August 2023
Email to the Hon'ble Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modiji and the P.M.O
Dated 4th August, 2023
My 'Urgent Request' letter for payment of arrears due from L.I.C of India.
To,
Tuesday, 11 July 2023
My letter to the Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modi - Urgent Request
Date: 18th
June, 2023
To,
Sri
Narendra Modiji,
Hon'ble
Prime Minister of India,
The Prime
Minister's Office,
152, South
Block,
Raisina
Hill,
New Delhi -
110011
URGENT REQUEST
Respected
Sir,
Subject: 1. Illegal repudiation of
arrears due to me (and other resigning ex-employees); by L.I.C of India, my
ex-employer and the Government of India, after delayed Wage Revision (due on
1st August, 2007) but notified on 8th October, 2010.
2.
Non-payment of Statutory Retirement Benefits like Provident Fund and Gratuity
on an enhanced basis after the said Wage Revision.
3. No
option given to us for opting for Pension (which was given later to other
employees)
4. No
intimation was given to me and the other resigning ex-employees about
possibility of repudiation of arrears, etc. when we submitted our resignation
letters.
5. Urgent request to direct the Life Insurance
Corporation of India to settle all the dues of the resigning ex-employees,
since 1st August, 1997. The Wage Revision Arrears have been continuously and
illegally/unconstitutionally/arbitrarily repudiated for 26 years, without any
reason; as proved by the Corporation's answers to my RTI queries!
6. My husband has just had a major surgery for Colorectal Cancer and is
convalescing. His treatment will most probably be life-long or long-term. He
will need to go in for regular, expensive, scanning and other diagnostic tests.
I had to borrow huge amounts from relatives to supplement my inadequate funds.
Instead of constantly depending on others who have their own problems, I
request you to ensure that I get all my said dues, as above-mentioned with
Compound Interest from 1st August, 2007, when they were actually payable to me;
till date (16 years, in my case!). These funds will provide me with some relief
from availing loans.
7.
Costs of sending representations, correspondence, filing RTI Appeals, photocopying
expenses, commuting, mental and physical harassment, losses due to wastage of
productive man-hours spent on representations/appeals; should also be paid to
all of us. You may decide an appropriate amount and request L.I.C to pay the
same to all of us. Similarly, other resigning ex-employees must also get their
dues, as they may also be facing financial problems.
Reference: The Gazette Notification
dated 8th October, 2010; and the previous and subsequent Gazette Notifications.
I, the
undersigned, had resigned when I was an Assistant Administrative Officer, in
Pune Camp Branch Office No. 953 (Pune Divisional Office No.1), after 18.5 years
of service on 2nd July 2010. The Gazette notification for payment of arrears
due from 1st August 2007 was announced on 11th October, 2010. Legally, I was
entitled to the arrears of difference in my wages from 1st August 2007 to 2nd
July 2010 but it was denied on the basis of this Gazette and subsequent
Circular’s notification by the Corporation.
Similarly, the
Provident Fund and Gratuity being Statutory Retirement Benefits, their difference
will also have to be paid as per the revised, enhanced wages. All the
allowances, perks, etc. would also have to be calculated accordingly and the
difference would have to be paid to me and all the resigning ex-employees.
The Corporation
wrongly differentiates between the two classes of voluntarily resigning
employees as those who have completed 20 years of service and those who have
resigned before completing 20 years of service. The first class is entitled to
the Wage Revision Arrears’ Payments and the second class isn’t entitled to it,
despite putting in long, sincere and dedicated years of service! Since the wage
revisions were announced for all the employees of the Corporation, as a class,
the Corporation should not deny the benefits to the resigning ex-employees. The Supreme Court has also mentioned this
point in its judgement, stating further, that the delay in payment of Wage
Revision Arrears is the fault of the Corporation which announces the Charter
belatedly; each time that it is due!
I am maintaining a
blog named uberrimafideslicindia.blogspot.com
to highlight the Corporation's gross injustice and to narrate my experience of
filing R.T.I Appeals to fight for my constitutional rights to wages, as I was
on the salary rolls of the Corporation on the date from which the arrears were
payable. Several similarly placed, resigning ex-employees have contacted me to
narrate their similar plights.
All the scanned
documents pertaining to my RTI crusade against L.I.C's injustice, are available
on this blog, for your perusal. You could note how the Corporation has evaded
giving answers to a majority of my queries! You could also note how the CIC
hasn't imposed any penalty on the Corporation for not providing answers,
despite my request for the same and instead put the onus on me for obtaining
answers from each of the numerous offices of the Corporation! Each aggrieved
person who has filed an RTI appeal has received the same response from the CIC!
So it has been an exercise in futility! A total wastage of our precious time
and meagre resources!
The mighty,
resource-rich L.I.C of India gets away with illegal repudiation whereas we are
made to run from pillar to post to get justice, and even asked to approach
courts for justice. As you are well aware, litigation is a time-consuming and
expensive affair, one that none of us can really afford. L.I.C takes undue
advantage of this fact. So now our only hope is that your intervention will
provide us with much-needed relief and justice.
Interestingly, many
resigning ex-employees (Class I and Class 2) from the Government's four General
Insurance Companies, Subsidiaries of Life Insurance like L.I.C Mutual Funds and
L.I.C Housing Finance have also approached me to join my crusade against this
gross injustice of Wage Arrears' Repudiation.
Despite L.I.C of
India's large Reserve Fund and Assets amounting to several trillions of rupees,
it keeps on illegally and arbitrarily repudiating Wage Revision Arrears of the
resigning, ex-employees. It's absolutely pathetic that we have to borrow money
from others in times of exigencies, like the one I am currently facing; just
because the Corporation has no regard for either the Supreme Court or the laws
of the nation and has illegally repudiated our hard-earned dues; despite a
Supreme Court ruling in 2007 that the Clause 3 B ii of the Wage Revision
Charter is ultra vires! This case is also highlighted in my blog.
Kindly look into the matter urgently and
consider my request to direct the
Life Insurance Corporation of India to settle all the dues of the resigning
ex-employees, since 1st August, 1997. The Finance Ministry may also be given
the requisite instructions from your end to expedite the process.
With reference to point 6 in the
'Subject' as mentioned above, kindly expedite payment of my dues (Wage Revision
Arrears and Difference in Statutory Retirement Benefits like Provident Fund and
Gratuity, etc.) with Compound Interest from 1st August, 2007, when they were
actually payable to me; till date (16 years, in my case!). Costs of filing RTI
Appeals, photocopying bills, commuting, mental and physical harassment should
also be paid to me and all those of us who have filed RTI appeals.
I'd be highly obliged if you'd do the
needful and respond favorably at the earliest.
Kindly accept my
warm regards.
Thanking you,
Yours
respectfully,
Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan
Enclosures:
Hospital's Admission Letter and Discharge Card's photocopies.
P.S. L.I.C of India
still acts in utter "Contempt of Court" manner to repudiate the
arrears by incorporating the same wordings, under Clause 3, that were declared
as "ultra vires" by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in 2007, and the
Government of India (Finance Ministry) also ratifies the same!
Extract from the
latest notification of 2021.
[à¤ाग
II—खण् ड 3(i)] à¤ारत का राजपत्र : ऄसाधारण 45
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 15th April, 2021
G.S.R. 273(E).—In exercise of the powers
conferred by section 48 of the Life Insurance
Corporation Act, 1956 (31 of 1956), the
Central Government hereby makes the following rules
further to amend the Life Insurance
Corporation of India (Special Area Allowance) Rules, 1988,
namely:-
1. (1) These rules may be called the Life
Insurance Corporation of India (Special Area Allowance)
Amendment Rules, 2021.
(2) They shall be deemed to have come into
force on the 1st day of August, 2017.
(3) These rules shall be applicable to all
employees who were in the whole-time salaried service in
the permanent establishment of the
Corporation as on or after the 1st August, 2017:
Provided further that the employee whose resignation had been accepted or whose services had been terminated under rule 39 of Life Insurance Corporation of India (Staff) Rules, 1960 during the period from the 1st August, 2017 to the date of publication of this notification in the Official Gazette, shall not be eligible for the arrears on account of revision.
Interestingly,
every Wage Revision Charter states the following, in its Explanatory Notes:
"It is certified that no officer of the Life Insurance Corporation of India is likely to be affected adversely by the notification being given retrospective effect."
But
proceeds to illegally and arbitrarily deprive the resigning ex-employees of
their hard-earned, constitutional wages, for the periods when they were on the
Salary Rolls of the Corporation and in active service!
Thursday, 11 May 2023
And yet L.I.C of India doesn't pay arrears and dues to its resigning ex-employees!
SOURCE: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/lics-rs-10-lakh-crore-portfolio-273-stocks-11-stars-but-only-1-superstar/articleshow/100089054.cms
LIC's Rs 10 lakh crore-portfolio: 273 stocks, 11 stars, but only 1 superstar!
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has 273 listed stocks in its portfolio worth INR 10tn ($133bn). Its largest holding is Reliance Industries, but its biggest returns so far this year have come from tobacco and consumer goods company ITC, which has risen by almost 30%. Tech consultancy TCS is LIC’s third largest holding, followed by State Bank of India and ICICI Bank. Among the largest holdings that have given double-digit returns are L&T, ONGC, Tata Motors and Dr Reddy's Lab. LIC has reduced its stake in ITC but the company's valuation there has risen above INR 80,000 crore.
**********************************************************************************************************************************************Our take on this report:
L.I.C of India is awash with funds.
And yet L.I.C of India doesn't pay arrears and dues to its resigning ex-employees!
Since 26 years!
Does anyone care about us at all?
The Government of India and the Finance Ministry of India definitely owe us an explanation!
They must ensure that we are given our dues with compound interest immediately.
"Patience has its rewards", as the old adage goes...
Will our patience pay off?
Only the Government and the Finance Ministry of India can answer!******************************************************Dec 24, 2015
Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Symbiotic relationship? Worrying scenario!
Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/view-india-cant-afford-to-get-the-adani-affair-wrong/articleshow/97469688.cms
View: India cannot afford to get the Adani affair wrong
In its rebuttal to short-seller Hindenburg Research’s claims of stock manipulation, tycoon Gautam Adani’s company made its strategy clear: Hindenburg’s accusations were, said Adani, “a calculated attack on India, the independence, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and the growth story and ambition of India.”
This is, of course, not true. Hindenburg Research is not part of a giant conspiracy to defame Adani, the Indian economy, or Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The company is a small, respected, New York-based shop of short-sellers that thinks it recognizes the signs of overvalued companies ripe for a selloff.
The possibility of profit is enough of a motive — you don’t have to reach for theories about a transnational network of anti-India bankers and journalists.
Yet there is one grain of truth in Adani’s claim, and it should worry Indian policymakers. Hindenburg’s report, which describes a web of offshore shell companies engaged in possible related-party transactions, refers to investigations by the relevant Indian regulator, the Securities and Exc ..
The report goes on to claim that the companies are still bein ..
India’s regulatory reputation is on the line. This is the one thing that has set us apart for three decades, since SEBI was first set up in response to our first big market manipulation scandal. It is something we as Indians should be proud of and should fight to defend....
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/view-india-cant-afford-to-get-the-adani-affair-wrong/articleshow/97469688.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst