Has Government Cleared 2nd Pension option for All Left Over Bankers ? 

We have been receiving emails since 14th July, 2012, that Government has cleared (i.e. allowed to opt) the long pending issue of "Second option of Pension to employees who resigned / special VRS from Bank services".   The source of these reports are a SMS received by few bankers quoting the name of  Shri Rishabdas, General Secretary of AIBOC.   However, we have not been able to get a confirmation of the same.     We hope this is true and most likely by 16th July, 2012 will be confirmed.     

AllBankingSolutions.com has taken up this issue at national level and has tried to create maximum pressure and exposed the nexus between union leaders and IBA in this matter.   Now certainly unions will claim that it is owing to their pressure that government is relenting.    But the fact remains that it was due to the strength of the retirees who came in open at our website and they filed numerous court cases and exposed the legal deficiencies of the IBA's contention.

We at AllBankingSolutions.com are worried lot as inspite of clearance by Government, IBA and union leaders can still play dirty politics and can distort facts to either deny some bankers the right to pension or delay the same by raising boggy on flimsy grounds in the name of seeking clarification on certain issues.   Union leaders will certainly try to link this news to their forthcoming strike and claim that government has agreed to their demand owing to strike threat.   However, our hunch is that in recent past Courts have taken a tough stand for denial of pension to bankers and insurance staff.   The recent judgment of Karnataka High Court have cleared the decks for pension to even resignees.  

Another question which arises is that what was the hurry that government cleared the same on late Friday evening?  (if this news proves to be true).   Was it due to the fact that  WP 32475/2010-32602/2010 (Dada peer & Others vs Canara Bank)  in Karnataka High Court is due for hearing on 16th July, 2012, and Canara Bank and others   may be finding it difficult to defend their stand and sought Government clearance so that it can clearly present the stand of government.  We feel this can be one of the reasons for this hurried and late decision.

Let the bankers wait and watch for another day or two to know the real facts.   However, all the retired  affected bankers have to be on guards, as IBA and union leaders can still play spoiler in the party, by giving their own interpretations to government clearance,  as it will be big defeat for them if at this stage they are forced to change their stand.  

We wish good luck to all the retiree bankers who were denied 2nd pension option, and hope the issue will be soon resolved in their favour.