Hazaribagh, Sept. 2: Retired workers of Coal India and its subsidiaries have asked the CIL chairman to speed up the settlement of their pension and other benefits.

The Association of Retired Persons have a sent a missive to the chairman in this connection. According to the letter, thousands of employees had worked in more than one of the CIL subsidiaries during the service period but the management failed to collect the data from the working places, which were required to assess benefits. At present, retired persons have to hunt for the requisite information to receive the benefits.

A team of pensioners had also met Rajesh Kumar, commissioner (provident fund) to voice their grievances. Kumar assured them that the issue would be raised in a meeting with director (personal).

The PRO of the retired persons association, A.K. Sandwar said it should be the responsibility of the last serving unit (last place of posting) of the retired person to send messengers to collect the necessary information of the pensioner.

He said a six-month notice was given as a preparatory period for any CIL company to finalise and hand over dues such as gratuity, leave pay and pension. He added that the system prevails in government PSUs, railways and post office, where retirement benefits are paid to employees on the date of retirement and the pension is finalised within a month.

He criticised the CIL for wasting thousands of rupees on a pension mela. He said there were no pension cells in the area or unit-level.