Request to withdraw cut in interest rates from Sr Citizens Savings Scheme, MIS and PPF

e-mail: narendramodi1234@gmail.com  

No. FORSE/ PM/ 0116

April 01, 2016

Sri Narendra Modi,

Prime Minister of India,

South Block Office, Raisina Hill, 

New Delhi-110011.

Sub: Request to withdraw cut in interest rates from Sr Citizens Savings Scheme, MIS and PPF and to create schemes for SAIL/PSU Retirees and Sr. Citizens.      Ref:  Our previous letters to PM in tinyurl.com/FORSE-PM and to Union Finance Minister in tinyurl.com/FORSE-FM

Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji,

I would like to draw your kind attention to a number of letters sent to you and your colleagues in the Ministry of Finance ( can be seen in the above referred links) on behalf of over a lakh of SAIL Retirees who also happened to be the Senior Citizens of this country. We were quite confident that the NDA Govt, installed in May 2014 under your leadership, will surely look at the plight of the PSU Retirees and other Senior Citizens in general and SAIL Retirees in particular as the latter belonged to a Maharatna Company. All our hopes evaporated into thin air very soon thereafter. Whatever was written in The ideals of the Govt as spelt out in the Govt portals for Senior Citizen also appears to have been scraped without really doing it formally. In nut-shell, Govt did nothing all through this period for the Senior Citizens and SAIL Retirees. Not a meeting was granted with you or any of the Union Ministers or a confidant of the Govt. May be the Govt feels emboldened due to our decreased influence in electoral politics and lack of physical fitness at an advanced age.

In last few weeks newer announcements came from the Govt ordering drastic cut in interest rates on the investments a senior citizen could make for a living like the Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme, MIS and PPF. Such actions are not quite understandable to us from a Govt which came to power with a promise of ‘Achhe Din’.

It appears that Senior Citizens are being made to make up for the losses and pay for the faults of large private entrepreneurs who did not return heavy loans taken from the banks, coupled with Govt granting of heavy subsidy to such entrepreneurs in the name of high growth rate of economic development, in addition to tax concessions and subsidies etc.. In our view it is quite unfair to benefit richer sections of the society at the cost of causing damages to lives of Sr. citizens who worked hard all their life for the development of the nation as well as the community. Instead of making them feel special in their twilight years by pro-active initiatives of the Govt they are put to severe cuts in sources of their existence.    

Hon’ble Sir, we would like to bring to your kind attention another dichotomy on the issue of step-motherly treatment between Central Government retired employees who are paid handsome pension, given revision of pension and DA increase every quarter which leads to inflation and makes common man including the Sr Citizens and SAIL retirees suffer (excluding the business man), who receive no pension. I would like to bring to your kind attention the fact that during last thirty years, the salaries and prices of common commodities have only doubled in the US and Canada, while in India there has been a 1500 to 2500 % increase during the same period. Those countries, which are icons of developed nations for us and whom we are trying our best to copy on every programme/ policy of development, have an old age Pension scheme while in India we have no such scheme nor our Govt appears to intend to introduce that.

Under the circumstances, the interest rate on such investments meant exclusively for SAIL/PSU retirees should go up with every pay revision and DA increase for the Sr citizens and SAIL/ PSU retirees. At least in the case of retired persons, the difference in the prevailing interest rate and the increased interest rate should be borne by the Government. 

In view of the above I request you to please order for increase in deposit rates for Sr. Citizens like SCSS, MIS and PPF across the board to 11% with immediate effect and tag the interest rates to increase in cost of living (with DA for Govt Pensioners).

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

                             (V.N.Sharma)

Chairman

Copy :

Sri Arun Jaitley,

Union Finance Minister,

Govt. of India,

North Block, Raisina Hill, 

New Delhi-110011

Note: This Grievance has been registered vide Registration number PMOPG/E/2016/0105199 in PMO