RRI employees' pension

Pension of the retired employees of the River Research Institute (RRI) has been stopped for more than a year. Nobody is showing any concern for these distressed people. Originally, the RRI was part of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and for providing special attention to research on water resources, this organisation was developed as a separate national institute at Faridpur in 1989. The employees who had been working in the RRI under the BWDB were absorbed without taking any consent from the employees concerned. Pension has been approved for the employees of the BWDB and the employees of the RRI who were recruited by and served under the BWDB for more than 25 years. They deposited their pension contribution to the BWDB and it deposited that amount to the RRI for providing pension to them. The RRI also provisionally approved the pension to the retired employees and after about 4/5 years, all of a sudden, this benefit has been stopped without considering the sufferings of the retired personnel and their families in these hard days.

We have heard that the Ministry of Water Resources has submitted the replies to the queries raised by the Ministry of Finance and the water resources minister also wrote a DO letter to the finance minister, requesting him to look into the matter urgently. But 3/4 months have already passed, still the unfortunate employees continue to suffer.

I appeal to the Honourable Prime Minister to look into the matter and save the men in distress.