The South Central Railway Employees’ Sangh (SCRES) urged railway authorities to review cases in which pensions have been revised downward and recoveries ordered from pensioners, and to take immediate steps to refund the amounts recovered and restore the original pension being drawn by retired employees.
In a press release issued on Sunday, SCRES General Secretary M. Raghavaiah expressed concern over the ‘arbitrary and unjustified’ downward revisions of pensions and recoveries of alleged excess payments detected after pension sanction in several cases.
He contended that zonal railways do not have the authority to initiate such recoveries or advise banks to reduce pension payments. Referring to Supreme Court judgments, Mr. Raghavaiah said recoveries of excess payments from retired Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ employees have been held to be impermissible in law.
The union leader maintained that recovering excess or erroneous payments from retired employees, or from employees due to retire within a year of the recovery order, is legally untenable. He also cited a case involving an appointment on compassionate grounds, in which a woman employee was allegedly reverted to a lower post for not securing 60% marks in graduation, despite no such condition being prescribed.
Mr. Raghavaiah said unrecoverable excess payments should be processed for a formal waiver through the Department of Expenditure (Ministry of Finance), rather than being recovered from employees. He further pointed out that under the Railway Services (Pension) Rules, a pension once sanctioned cannot ordinarily be revised to the disadvantage of the pensioner. If a clerical error is detected after two years, the matter should be referred to the Railway Board for a decision on whether such a revision is warranted, he said, according to media coordinator V. Sripati Sharma.
MMTS services
Meanwhile, the Suburban Train Travellers Association appealed to South Central Railway (SCR) to introduce additional MMTS services between Bolarum and Secunderabad during peak hours to ease commuter hardships.
The association noted that roads leading to Secunderabad are witnessing severe traffic congestion due to the ongoing road underbridge (RUB) works at Neredmet and Safilguda, as well as road-laying and repair works on AOC Road. Association secretary Noor suggested that additional MMTS services be operated during peak periods from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. to benefit students, office-goers and other commuters.
Published – September 20, 2026 06:50 pm IST
