Derogatory article in Mumbai Mirror

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Mumbai Mirror (a Mumbai based newspaper) and Pune Mirror (a Pune based newspaper) published a derogatory article in their newspapers today i.e. on 18.09.2010 about the meal coupon scheme in LIC of India.

When it came to our knowledge, NOINO & NOIW (jointly) immediately wrote a strongly worded protest letter to the Chairman.

First we reproduce below the article which was published:

Heading:
Your money, their lunch

Subheading:
In a weird variation of the mid-day meal scheme, LIC will spend Rs 336 crore of taxpayers’ money across the country on food coupons to cajole employees to come to office on time

The Article:
Punctuality is the norm in any professional environment and employees disregarding it are duly penalised. However, in a bizarre Pavlovian initiative, the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is virtually bribing its employees to come to office on time. From October onwards, LIC employees across the country who come in on time will receive food coupons worth Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,000 along with their monthly salary.
 “But to get this benefit, the employees should log in to their computers by 10 am or within the 10-minute grace period. All employees, from part-time staff to zonal managers, who log in on time will receive food coupons ranging between Rs 50 and Rs 200 daily,” an LIC source told Mumbai Mirror.
 LIC has put in place an elaborate scheme to enable its employees to encash the coupons at select food outlets and malls. Interestingly, the food coupons redeemed will not attract income-tax, thus becoming a double whammy of sorts for the employees.
 LIC’s chief of corporate communications, Vipin Anand, termed it an internal matter. “Is it big news? There are hundreds of other things happening in the country. Why don’t you write about it?” he snapped.
 Basic math suggests that the PSU giant stands to lose Rs 336-crore annually (an average of Rs 2000 per month multiplied by 12 months for 1.4 lakh employees). We are taking only 20 working days because added to the ‘punctuality incentive’, they will still avail of their leaves – the PLs, SLs, CLs and other bank holidays.
 M Vijayanand, co-founder and president of Fifth Pillar, a well-known NGO which fights corruption at high places and reckless spending of public money, said the move was ridiculous. He plans to file an RTI application to obtain more details on the issue.
 “LIC has set a bad precedent,” Vijayand said. “By paying an incentive to ensure punctuality is an admission that the service rules are not being imposed effectively. LIC is now doing well financially. In future, if it is to face a downturn and has to withdraw the incentive, the employees would then say ‘why should we come on time since you don’t pay us’,” Vijayanand said.
 Meanwhile, Life Insurance Agents Federation of India (LIAFI) national secretary Shyamal Chakraborthy went on a different tangent. His grouse was LIC agents should not be excluded from the food coupon incentive system. “We have told LIC executive director (marketing) T Chattopadhyay that it was unfair, because we are the ones who bring maximum business to LIC,” he said.
 On how LIC would ensure effective attendance monitoring, an official explained, “Ours is a highly computerised organisation. Sitting in Mumbai, our chairman can evaluate the business performance of our Kolar office. So, we know who comes in late.”

T S Sreenivasa Raghavan
mirrorfeedback@indiatimes.com


Our protest letter to the Chairman is reproduced in our next post.
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