New Pension Scheme is sheer exploitation of the employees
Sunday, 06 March 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The National president of National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS) Vijay Kumar Bandhu has said that irrespective of the party which comes into power in Uttarakhand after election, the next government would have to restore the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in the state. Interacting with the media persons here on Friday he said that the OPS movement has now assumed the form of a revolution and no government is now in a position to stop it. He said that the employees who are not covered by the social security cover of pension have now woken up and realised that the NPS is nothing but a sheer exploitation. Bandhu said that a large number of the employees hit the road in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh (HP) in response to the call given by the NMOPS to gherao the assembly. He said that the administration and police tried to stop them and used force when they failed.
The president of Uttarakhand NMOPS, Jeetmani Painuli said that the employees of Uttarakhand deplore the use of force by the police on the employees demanding OPS in Shimla. He said that the new government in Uttarakhand should restore the benefit of OPS for the employees and teachers. The spokesperson of the Uttarakhand NMOPS Surya Singh Panwar said that old pension is a right of employees and needed for a safe post retirement life.
The NPS was started in the year 2004 by the Manmohan Singh government to reduce the ever increasing burden of pension on state exchequer. Under it a portion of the salary of the employees is deducted every month and the government makes an equal contribution and a retirement corpus is built. The employees receive a pension from this corpus. The employees are finding the NPS non lucrative and are demanding the restoration of OPS in which the retiring employee gets 50 per cent of his last drawn salary as pension.
Recently the Ashok Gehlot led Rajasthan government announced to reinstate the benefit of Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for its employees appointed after January 1, 2004. This decision has given new hope to about 80,000 employees of the Uttarakhand government covered under NPS and they have stepped up their agitation for OPS.
