Whispers Forum

After 31 years at Indian Oil Corporation, I discovered a rule many PSU employees confront only at exit:
Resign — and post-retirement medical benefits end entirely.
Retire normally or take VRS — and they continue for life.
Same employee. Same service. Different treatment based only on mode of exit.
This structure exists across several Maharatna and Navratna PSUs. It belongs to an era of lifetime employment, when leaving a PSU was viewed as disloyalty. That world no longer exists.
Today’s professionals move between government, PSU and private sector roles through their careers. But PSU benefit structures still discourage mobility.
The unintended consequences are significant:
• Senior employees delay exits even when growth has plateaued.
• Younger talent finds promotion pipelines blocked.
• Employees become risk-averse and reluctant to challenge poor decisions.
• Weak management survives because exit costs are too high.
• Institutions lose long-term goodwill from experienced alumni.
A simple reform can change this:
Link post-retirement medical eligibility to years of service, not mode of exit.
Employees who have served decades should not lose all medical security merely because they resigned instead of superannuating.
The fiscal impact would be modest if actuarially planned. The institutional gains — better mobility, healthier leadership renewal, and stronger employer credibility — would be far larger.
PSUs spend heavily on leadership programmes and employer branding. Yet one outdated rule quietly undermines both.
The wall around the PSU exit door may be invisible, but it is costing institutions some of their best people.
— Pradeep Chhabra
Just merging demerging
Nowadays politics have become a joke. Nothing about development just merging demerging for their own development
Shweta

Let Sunetra merge with BJP then the NCP(SP) will become the real NCP. Let Shinde merge his SS with BJP. Then SS(UBT) will become the real SS. At the end, the ECI will look like a waste paper basket .
HT
Reject proposal
I think bjp must reject this proposal. Otherwise bjp will lose lot of votes
Anupam
BJP’s mastermind plan
This is BJP’s mastermind plan — to break all regional parties and then merge them into the BJP. In the future, only BJP will remain as the single party, and no one will be left to oppose it.
Keshav

I would love to see Sanyal as the Finance Minister of West Bengal.
A Dasgupta
Good economist
Yes Bengal needs good economist to revive it's industrial base
AGK
Excellent choice
I think that would be excellent choice and he should be there for longer period
AHK
Mix of both worlds
No, coz he doesn't understand the rural dynamics of Bengal. Bengal needs someone who can bring me a mix of both worlds: the business world, coupled with an agriculture-driven economy. He would be better as minister of trade, commerce and industries. He hasn't travelled to rural Bengal. Kolkata is Bengal through his lens.
Saha

The appellant sought information about proximity of proposed retail outlet of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) with respect to other buildings. Referring to the SDM's investigation report mentioning the existence of residential buildings within the proximity of the proposed petrol pump, he claimed that the map submitted by IOCL to various government bodies indicates the presence of 100 meters of open land around the site. This contradiction raises concerns about the accuracy and integrity of the information provided by IOCL. The respondent submitted that the RTI application is in the nature of a grievance and the appellant has not disclosed any public interest for seeking the information. The respondent submitted that the appellant has raised complaints with them and they have duly replied to his complaints. The CIC observed that the respondent did not give an appropriate reply to the appellant and directed to provide a revised point-wise reply. Further, the CIC directed to provide information such as the Vigilance Inquiry Procedure for willful misrepresentation of facts or willful concealment of material facts in the drawing and documents.
Comments
The PIO should be careful while replying to an application and must ensure that the information provided is strictly as per records. Contradictory information indicates malafide intent and defeats the objective of transparency.
Citation: Anirudha Dhanik v. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, File No: CIC/IOCLD/C/2024/641662/A; Date of Decision: 23-01-2026
Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is a RTI Consultant currently working with IIM Vishakhapatnam. She has co-authored the books PIO’s Guide to RTI and Right to Information – Law and Practice. Her weekly article is being published since 2008 on this site. She offers consultancy on RTI matters and third party audit to individuals / organisations. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation at the link https://www.rtifoundationofindia.com

This is a very wrong decision. Instead of burdening the staff, the government should appoint new candidates. All the bank employees should be transferred near to their families and parents, especially the women employees. This must be made a mandatory rule.
Yogesh Sharma
We said
Well said "A Visitor" on Kerala crisis. Congress is always a party which behaves with highhandedness and always try to push their coterie members in the Chair, which always belongs to the person who fights and seen on the ground. Why BJP is winning elections is that they are promoting their cadre, not their leaders, quite often. We never knew who was MP, Delhi and Rajasthan CMs before they were given the positions. Youth mixed with experienced people have to be chosen for the top job, rather than pushing people who have been defeated back to back
RAMESH

While PM Narendra Modi and HM Amit Shah Jodi in BJP is known for promoting Hardwork as a criteria for any party or government posts and also experiment with unknown faces as party is in a powerful position to do so , the Congress on the other side even after repeated losses still believes in Harward and foreign educated backroom advisors who have turned the Congress High command to a LOW command preferring a candidate who has a history of historical election defeats for his party in place of hard working leaders who made Congress comeback in kerala possible. The party lost Assam then MP permanently by such adventures.
How can a Nation trust a party which still cannot decide who will be CM of Kerala from it's own MLAs after getting huge majority when it has to fight against a mighty BJP hardworking election machinery liked by majority of Indians.
Its a strange case where a important figure in high command ie General secretary organization of Congress party himself wants to be CM rather than following a peaceful democratic process as mentioned in the Red colour book of Indian constitution which his party leader Shri Rahul Gandhi always carries and is proud of.
A VISITOR