Pensioners Forum Raises CGHS, Pension and Senior Citizen Issues in Kanpur

Kanpur: A meeting of the Pensioners Forum was held at Chitragupt Dharamshala in C Block, Govind Nagar, Kanpur, on September 5. The meeting was chaired by Rajesh Kumar Shukla and several issues related to pensioners, CGHS services and senior citizens were discussed.

General Secretary Anand Awasthi said a seven-member delegation led by him would meet the Additional Director of CGHS to raise issues faced by beneficiaries.

One of the main concerns was the payment of hospital bills under CGHS. The forum said unnecessary deductions are being made from hospital bills before they are cleared, which is creating problems for patients and affecting their treatment.

The forum also raised the issue of the pending installation of a lift at the CGHS facility. It said that neither a lift nor an alternative arrangement has been provided so far.

The members also demanded immediate appointment of dependents of employees who died during the Covid period.

Rajesh Kumar Shukla said the proposal to increase the minimum EPS-95 pension from ₹1,000 to ₹3,000 has been passed. The forum also demanded that medicines that are not available at dispensaries should be supplied to beneficiaries within 24 hours through medicine suppliers.

The pensioners also raised concerns over pension revision under the proposed Eighth Pay Commission. They said pensioners have not been included for pension revision under the Terms of Reference of the commission. They also pointed out that the Finance Bill 2025 did not contain any specific provision for pensioners.

The forum said this has created concern among retired employees that they could be left out of the benefits of the new pay commission. It demanded a clear assurance that retired employees would also receive the benefits.

Another demand was to exempt all pensioners from income tax.

The forum also appealed for decisions of the Supreme Court to be applied equally to all people covered by the same matter. It said this would reduce the need for people to approach different courts repeatedly and could help reduce the number of cases and delays in getting justice.

The members also demanded reconsideration of the 18 months of Dearness Relief withheld during the Covid period. If the government faces financial difficulties in making the payment at one time, the forum suggested that the amount could be paid in two or three instalments.

The forum further demanded restoration of all concessions that were available to senior citizens before the Covid period, including railway concessions.

It also sought reconsideration of additional pension benefits based on age. The demand includes an additional 5% pension at the age of 65, 10% at 70, 15% at 75 and 20% at 80 years.

Other demands included restoration of the old pension system and extension of CGHS facilities to retired employees of IITs.

The forum also demanded that retired employees be provided an opportunity to travel across India once every two years along with one assistant.

The members again stressed that dependents of employees who died during the Covid period should be given jobs without further delay.

The meeting was attended by Anand Awasthi, Satya Narayan, V P Srivastava, Subhash Bhatia, H N Tiwari, P S Bajpai, Ashok Srivastava, R P Shukla, Vinay Prakash Upadhyay, R P Verma, Ashok Kumar, Maniram Tiwari, U S Dixit, K K Srivastava, Umesh Shukla, Munshi Pandit, N K Dubey, Shiv Shankar, Jiyalal and others.