The Eastern Maharashtra Bank Retirees Association (EMBRA), affiliated to the All India Bank Retirees Federation (AIBRF), once again demonstrated its grit and determination in opposing the Government’s and IBA’s adamant refusal to resolve the long-pending and legitimate demand for pension updation. As part of this struggle, EMBRA organised a dharna at Samvidhan Chowk, Nagpur, demanding justice for bank pensioners wherein more than 400 retirees, including a number of lady retirees most of them above the age of 75 years registered their presence. S B Butolia, General Secretary of EMBRA, said that bank pensioners across the country have been waging a sustained and united struggle for pension updation on the lines of the RBI pension updation formula since 2018. Ishwar Chelwani, Chairman of EMBRA, said that the Bank Pension Scheme was introduced in 1995 and was broadly modelled on the pension schemes of the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Government.

 

The Pension Regulations governing bank employees were framed in consultation with, and with the approval of, the RBI, the statutory regulator of banks. All subsequent amendments to these regulations have also been made with RBI’s approval. O P Varma, President of EMBRA; Pradeep Sapre, Deputy General Secretary of EMBRA; Narendra Khutate, Vice President, EMBRA Nagpur; R P Lodha, Organising Secretary; Surendra Trivedi, D G S; Liladhar D Revatkar, former General Manager Union Bank of India; Santosh Kumar Dubey, Vice President and Media Incharge; and others were also present. C R Iyer, Milind Joshi, Liladhar Barai and R R Gupta worked for the successful organisation of dharna, says a press release issued by the association.