Government Workers Demand Reinstatement of Old Pension Plan

A large crowd of several lakh government workers from the federal and provincial levels descended on the nation's capital on Sunday to demand the reinstatement of the previous pension plan.

A teachers' leader named Sunil Bajpai stated 8 to 10 lakh workers had gathered from all across the nation, including the Andamans and Ladakh, after traveling from Etawah in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The gathering was requested by the National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS), an association of federal and state government employees.

For employees hired after the Center and the majority of states replaced it with the National Pension Scheme (NPS), the NMOPS is leading a national drive to reinstate the former pension scheme (OPS).

An employee is entitled to a pension under the OPS that is equal to 50% of their most recent income. The NPS, presented by the Center in 2004 and adopted by the majority of states, mandates that an employee in service contribute an amount to their pension that is equal to the amount made by the government. The eventual pension is significantly smaller than that under the OPS, even at the highest permitted rate of contribution.

Employees from all state government ministries as well as the railway, postal, and defense departments of the Centre attended the conference, according to Bajpai, an NMOPS member.

"Several leaders, including farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and Opposition politicians like Udit Raj from the Congress, Sanjay Singh from the Aam Admi Party, and Kuldeep Yadav from the Samajwadi Party took part," he claimed.

According to Bajpai, it was determined during the meeting that the NMOPS would wait a few days to see what the government would say.

The NMOPS would organize anti-BJP campaigns in all the states and ask people not to support the party in the 2024 general election if there is no positive response, he said.

said.

Vijay Kumar Bandhu, the head of the NMOPS, told this publication last month that Bengal and Tamil Nadu never stopped the OPS, but states like Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand have already done so.

In April of this year, the Union finance ministry established a committee to make suggestions for the NPS. The panel still hasn't turned in its report. However, Bandhu claimed that the NMOPS desired the OPS's restoration rather than an enhanced NPS.