Fate of over 125 compassionate ground appointees at Central Railway’s Nagpur Division on migrating to old pension scheme (OPS) hangs in balance as local officials are reluctant to fill up their option form for migrating out of new pension scheme (NPS). Railway Board following upon directives of Department of Pension and Pensioner's Welfare (DoPT), Government of India, said employees whose appointment got delayed in between phasing out of OPS and introduction of NPS can now opt for OPS by filling up option form.

 

Board has issued the circular in month of March and now extended the date for submission of option forms till end of September. Accepting that employees cannot be put at loss due to delay in finalising their appointments before NPS came into effect, DoPT clarification said that 'in case results of the results for recruitment were declared before 01.01.2004, against vacancies occurring on or before 31.12.2003, the candidates declared successful for recruitment shall be eligible for coverage under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972. National Pension Scheme (NPS) or new pension scheme as it is popularly called was introduced from April 1, 2004, wherein a portion from employee's salary is credited to pension account whereas in OPS Government used to contribute.

 

In case of railway employees, the rules states that compassionate ground appointments of wards or nominee have to be finalised within a period of one month, in case the employee has died on duty. The same period for deciding applications for compassionate appointment for employees who died off duty, the time limit is six months. At CR's Nagpur Division, between 1998-2004 compassionate ground appointments were held up due to slow down on part of railway administration. But post April 2014 onwards, administration went in over drive mode and cleared the backlog and handed out appointment letters enmass, about 100 were given employment on single day. That time Manjula Saxena as Sr. Divisional Personnel Officer (Sr. DPO) provided the dynamic to Personnel Department under guidance of then Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Sunil Agrawal.

 

Said Virendra Singh, Divisional President, Central Railway Mazdoor Sangh (CRMS), Nagpur Division, though administration is ready to grant one time option for employees who were recruited through Railway Recruitment Board (RRB). This is gross injustice to wards of railway employees and they are being punished for no fault of theirs. He further pointed out that DoPT circular has not made any distinction between employees, RRB or compassionate ground candidates, and its the Railways that is out to create anomaly.

 

Singh also referred to DoPT circular that in case Screening/ Selection Committee had taken decision to appoint the person before January 1, 2004, then they to can be covered under the one time option. Beyond this railway administration should not have any doubt.

The DoPT circular also clarified that in case the beneficiary has passed the family of employee can exercise the option. In that case, the administration should follow directions stipulated in circular issued in February 2020 and act accordingly. Similarly if the employee had resigned and then joined other Government department then also separate procedure qualifying for OPS is provided.

Another querry put up field unit was regarding adjustment of corpus in NPS account that was transferred to Government subsequent to death of the employee to which it was stated that same be adjusted with contribution in NPS account with upto date interest, calculated on the rates applicable to GPF from time to time. The amount that is arrived at should be paid to nominee of the employees as per regulations of Provident Fund Regulatory Development Authority.