KOZHIKODE: The Provident Fund Pensioners Federation in a press conference here on Tuesday highlighted the disparity of the Cen-tral government towards the EPF pensioners. M.T. Suresh Babu, general secretary of Provident Fund Pensioners Federation said, “The pensioners ha-ve been contributing to the pension fund since 1971 but the pension am-ount being given to them is Rs 500 to around Rs 1000.”
He said, though EPF had promised in its publication in 1995 that the pension will be revised yearly, even after 23 years no changes are being brou-ght in despite the fund increasing above 14 lakh crores. The Kerala Hum-an Rights Commission, High court and Supreme Court had given verdict in favour of the pensioners and stated that it was the violation of “Article 14” of the Indian constitution. EPFO’s reason for not giving pension is deficit of funds, but EPFO’s statement and RTI reply shows that the corpus fund with EPFO in 2011 to 2018 had increased by '3,25,000 crore to above '14 lakh crore he said.
“The government has no deficit of funds when it comes to propoganda advertisments or hiking the minimum pension of its employees”, he added.
The All India EPS 95 Pensioners Sangharshan Samithi is planning to organise several agitations including “Fast unto death and Aatmahuti” in front of EPFO H.O New Delhi.
