This letter has been addressed to Editor of Indian Cooperative Ajay Jha. The writer is the anguished son of Ex Managing Director of apex labour co-op body-National Labour Cooperative Federation late R M Pandey. The NLCF is based in Sarita Vihar in Delhi.
Alok Pandey, son of late R M Pandey says that the present management of NLCF has made his mother-wife of ex MD run from pillar to post and has not yet given her the terminal benefits due to her husband who worked for 35 years in the organization. Junior Pandey has also written against us but upholding the ideals of journalism we have decided to reproduce the letter verbatim(uncut) in the hope of seeking justice for his mother-Editor
Dear Sir
I am Alok Pandey, Son of Late Mr. R.N. Pandey, Ex- MD National Labour Cooperative Federation. I am a non-resident Indian by profession, settled in South Korea from last 4 years.
You know my father very well, I also met you once at one of NLCF functions where my father introduced me to you and asked me to touch your feet. After death of my father, I have read news articles published on Indian Cooperative news portal about my father- few positive and many negative stories.
Well, what is published in past is past now as people are not interested to read it and my father is also no more in this world to defend, I do remember unhappiness my father expressed to you over phone on some of the stories published on your portal when he was alive . My father was deeply hurt by the story published on your portal in which your portal reported that my late father demanded retaining of NLCF official vehicle after retirement. I even checked this fact with your source of information in NLCF staff and he refuted giving such information to Indian Cooperative.
I was aware about the pain my late father was going through from 2-3 years before his retirement. Have you ever thought why he suffered a heart attack immediately after retirement and could not survive? He could not handle
Anyway, there is a lot to share but difficult to express in words, what we see and listen is always not true. My father never shared his pain/concerns/harassment he was going through with anyone as maintaining prestige of NLCF was his first priority as he was the one who built NLCF from scratch.
Why I am writing all this to you:
Your portal has published many stories on cooperative leaders, this time I request you to keep aside these political leaders and ponder with true purpose of journalism about the pain of people working in these politically controlled cooperative societies. Have you ever heard that a MD of national cooperative is retired and not a single paper is given to him on day of retirement informing about his outstanding dues. Let me inform you that NLCF neither released any retirement benefits/outstanding salaries nor provided any written details to my late father on date of his retirement.
After retirement, my father followed-up with NLCF for release of his monies. After his death, my mother wrote several letters to NLCF but NLCF did not bother to reply. Ultimately my mother wrote letter to Chairman and all the Directors on the Board. After 3 letters, NLCF submitted a deceptive reply and again did not provide any details about his outstanding monies, additionally they took advantage of his death and blamed my father (a dead person) for difficult financial position of NLCF. Ultimately we realized that people have vested interests and settlement of dues of a dead person is least priority for them.
If NLCF is not even ready to provide details of my father’s outstanding monies then how we can trust them that they will settle and pay my late father monies to my mother. After almost 1.5 years of my father’s death, rigorous follow-up, we ultimately decided to knock at the door of law . The case against NLCF is set for 1st hearing on 9th Feb 2018. NLCF did release partial gratuity and partial CPF but that too without any outstanding details. This puts a question mark on integrity and transparency of people who are managing the affairs of NLCF and also their lack of commitment for the laws of the land. How a national level cooperative federation like NLCF will work for welfare and rights of labour when it is doing injustice to its own employee who served it for 35 years.
Just imagine how a wife will feel when she lost her husband all of a sudden and the employer where her husband spent whole of his life did not even bother to reply to her letters and finally she is compelled to run from post to pillar, take a legal step against the employer.
As I mentioned earlier, your portal has published lot of negative stories about my father in past on feedback of one of BOD of NLCF. The facts narrated above prove that workers of cooperative societies are at mercy of cooperative leaders both before and after death.
With due respect , I leave it on your sense of judgment /professionalism / true purpose of journalism to decide on reporting of story of pain and trouble my mother and other family members are going through to receive legal dues of my father on your portal.
I know that majority of stories published on my father were fed to you by one of Directors on Board of NLCF. As I mentioned above, I leave it on you to decide whether to forward this e-mail to your source in NLCF BOD for his consent or publish story on your portal in an unbiased way.
Please forgive me if any of words written above hurts your sentiments.
Regards
Alok Pandey
Son of late R M Pandey
Ex MD, NLCF