Mangalore, August 27: The members of Dkshina Kannada district unit of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions staged a protest in front of the Regional Office of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation in the city demanding better facilities to pensioners on Friday.
In a memorandum addressed to Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjuna Kharge and submitted to the Assistant Provident Fund Commission, Vasanth Achary, general secretary DK district Committee of CITU, said the CITU had been long urging the Employees Provident Fund Organization Trust to retain and continue the benefits introduced through Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995, It had been seeking improvements in the same scheme.
Nearly 80 percent of pensioners were getting less than Rs. 500 a month. The minimum pension payable was unbelievably as low as Rs.50 a month. In the case of contract workers, In the case of contractors were not remitting provident fund contributions collected from the workers to the Provident Fund (P.F.) Organisation.
The labour contractors were enrolling themselves at far off places and not at the actual place of work. This was causing a lot of inconvenience to the workers in getting benefits available to them under the P.F Scheme.
Demands
Mr Achary said that the minimum pension payable should be increased to Rs. 1,000 per month as recommended by the Committee of Experts. The government should contribute 7 percent as its share to the Employees' Pension Fund. The workers should get 20.33 percent of the total contribution made by the employers and employees. Monthly pension should be increased at the rate of 3 percent per annum to compensate for rise in prices.
The benefit of commutation, which had been withdrawn, should be restored. The percentage of reduction in reduced pension should be re-fixed at 3 percent only. The provident fund and pension funds should not be diverted for investment in share market.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
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