Railway employees union seeks restoration of pensions

The South Central Railway Employees’ Sangh (SCRES) urged railway authorities to review cases in which pensions have been revised downward and recoveries ordered from pensioners, and to take immediate steps to refund the amounts recovered and restore the original pension being drawn by retired employees.

In a press release issued on Sunday, SCRES General Secretary M. Raghavaiah expressed concern over the ‘arbitrary and unjustified’ downward revisions of pensions and recoveries of alleged excess payments detected after pension sanction in several cases.

He contended that zonal railways do not have the authority to initiate such recoveries or advise banks to reduce pension payments. Referring to Supreme Court judgments, Mr. Raghavaiah said recoveries of excess payments from retired Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ employees have been held to be impermissible in law.