Page 1 of 24 Private Circulation for LIC Pensioners only ( A monthly e - Magazine of LIC Retired Class I Officers’ Association, Kolkata ) MAY, 2018 55th Issue Chief Editor : Sudarsan Basu Editorial Board : Dilip Kr Ghosh Subir Kr Mazumder Amar Kr Goswami Subrata Kr Ghosh BEST WISHES FOR THE MAY DAY And for the struggle to achieve the five day week IN LIC IN THIS ISSUE: Editorial………………....2 Federation Matter….3 Association News…..4 Of Interest : ……….… 4 FrmOth Association.10 Humour…..….......... 15 Tourism…………………15 The River…………….…19 Health Guide………...20 Pensioners’ Tour…..22 Price index ……………23 Reader’s Opinion….24 About magazine……..24 Page 2 of 24 MAY,2018 55TH Issue EDITORIAL MARCH May,2018 Day or Labour 53rd Issue Day in India was first celebrated in Chennai on May 1, 1923. The initiative was taken by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan. The leader of the party, Comrade Singaravelar arranged two meetings to celebrate this occasion. One meeting was held at the Triplicane Beach, and the other took place at the beach opposite the Madras High Court. In the meeting, Singaravelar passed a resolution which stated that the government should announce a national holiday on the May Day or Labour Day in India. The first Monday of May is a bank holiday in the United Kingdom. It is called May Day in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is known as the Early May Bank Holiday in Scotland. It probably originated as a Roman spring festival honoring the beginning of the summer season (in the northern hemisphere). It is a traditional May Day in Europe. In Europe the eight-hour day movement or short-time movement, was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. It had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life. The use of child labour was common. The working day could range from 10 to 16 hours. Robert Owen had raised the demand for a ten-hour day in 1810. By 1817 he had formulated the goal of the eight-hour day and coined the slogan: "Eight hours' labour, Eight hours' recreation, Eight hours' rest". Women and children in England were granted the ten- hour day in 1847. French workers won the 12-hour day after the February Revolution of 1848. A shorter working day and improved working conditions were part of the general protests and agitation for the early organisation of trade unions. In 1986, beginning on 1 May, there was a general strike for the eight-hour workday. More than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists. On 4th May, the police acted to disperse a public assembly in support of the strike when an unidentified person threw a bomb. The police responded by firing on the workers. The event lead to the death of eight and injury of sixty police officers as well as an unknown number of civilian killed or wounded. Hundreds of labour leaders and sympathizers were later rounded-up and four were executed by hanging, after a trial that was seen as a miscarriage of justice. The following day on 5 May in Milwaukee Wisconsin, the state militia fired on a crowd of strikers killing seven, including a schoolboy and a man feeding chickens in his yard. Wikipedia says: International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day or Workers' Day in some countries, and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement to commemorate the 1886 movement in Chicago. The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on "all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace. The congress made it "mandatory upon the proletarian organisations of all countries to stop work on 1 May, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers. Today, the majority of countries around the world celebrate a workers' day on 1 May. The 1st of May is a national public holiday in many countries worldwide, in most cases as "Labour Day", "International Workers' Day" or some similar name – although some countries celebrate a Labour Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States and Canada, which celebrate Labour Day on the first Monday of September. Page 3 of 24 Federation News: LETTER FROM GENERAL SECRETARY, FEDERATION OF RETIRED LIC CLASS-I OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATIONS : E circular No.DK/21 18-04-2018 (MAY BE PUBLISHED IN THE BLOGS PLEASE) Friends, I have just returned after a fairly detailed meeting with Sri G N Sridharan and Sri M Arunachalam who attended the S C Hearing on the 16th at Delhi. Though substantively nothing changes from the brief information that was passed on in our communication DK/19 , some highlights of the proceedings could be gathered and I thought these may be of interest to our members. 1. The Hearing on 16th came up at around 12 noon, and our Federation was represented in the Court by our Advocate on Record, Sri Rajiv Garg and our Senior Counsel Sri Hansaria. 2. Sri K T S Tulsi, the Senior Counsel for AIRIEF was also present representing his client , one of the six Petitioners. 3. Our Senior Counsel, made out some basic points which included: a. Interim Relief of 40% paid to Pre-97 Retirees, over 2 years ago, had just remained as a one-time payment, and had not been followed up by monthly payments based on the Interim Relief ---- also they had been defectively calculated. b. Anomalies in Pension amount between Retirees of post 97 , because of periodic Revisions to the in-service stream and no changes for the Retirees. 4. Sri Thulsi, Sr. Counsel for AIRIEF, spoke strongly of the ageing group of Pensioners, and the need for speedy disposal of our matter. He also submitted a written Note to the judges . 5. LIC's Counsel Sri Panigrahi, intervened to ask the Bench for two weeks time, which was opposed by our counsel. The Bench, though appeared to be in a mood to pass orders, but after mutual consultations, agreed for an adjournment to July, and later, the Court Record of Proceedings for the day, shows the listing of our case for 24th July. 6. Since the Court itself had listed the Hearing for Tuesday, the 24th of July 2018, the reasonable inference is that there would be no change in that date . 7. Another inference is that the Hearing, on a Tuesday, when no miscellaneous/ admission cases would come up, could go on for extended hours if it is needed. 8. Normally when admission of SLP is ordered by the Court, it will automatically get numbered as a civil case, and would go through much delay in disposal finally. If at admission stage itself the arguments suggest completeness, it can also go in for final disposal without getting numbered as a civil case. With Greetings and Best Wishes D.Krishnan. GENERAL SECRETARY The In-service employees in LIC enjoyed the first weekly holiday on a Saturday on 29th April 2018 just ahead of the symbolic May Day which is observed to commemorate the fight for 8 hrs duty and six days week. The fight of the LIC Employees to achieve Five Days Week is still incomplete. Page 4 of 24 ASSOCIATION NEWS: It is reported with heavy heart that one of our very senior members Subodh Chandra Mondal breathed his last on 23rd april'2018. Late SC Mondal left behind his widow, two daughters, sons-in-law, and grand children. Eastern News pays its respectful homage to the departed soul and offers condolences to the bereaved family. The governing Body of the Association met on 10.04.2018 and interalia decided to hold AGM on 23.06.2018 subject to availability of suitable Hall. The Notice will be issued soon. It is our immense pleasure to heartily welcome our friend S/Sri Debi Prasad Banerjee, Asit Kumar Ghosh, and Manik Lal Datta, as members of our Association. We wish all three new members happy retired lives and expect them to contribute to the cause of the retired LIC Class-I Officers by way of active participation in the functioning of the Association. OF INTEREST: (A) 2nd and 4th Saturdays are declared Holidays in LIC Offices: Page 5 of 24 (B) Mediclaim Policy & Premium for 2018-19:- Circular: Page 6 of 24 Page 7 of 24 Page 8 of 24 Page 9 of 24 Page 10 of 24 FROM OTHER ASSOCIATIONS: VP,AIRIEF(All India Retd Insurance Employees Fedn) writes to ED (E&OS)-27.04.2018 Dear Sri RKSood, Problems & Issues faced by Pensioners, time to initiate steps to address special concern for Family Pensioners 1)It was a pleasure to talk to you few days before on problems faced by Pensioners in general & Family Pensioners in particular. Group MediClaim Policy 2018-19 & Policy Conditions & Benefits : We all pensioners were eagerly waiting for announcement of Group Mediclaim Policy renewal for 2018-19 with sound modifications, as we gave exhaustive useful suggestions on the basis of analysis of feedback after Hospitalisation.We are glad we got the CO Circular with premium tables for Category I, II & III .There is just a measly reduction of 3-4.5 % across the board .