Will restore OPS if voted to power: Assam Pradesh Congress Committee

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) said that the Congress has taken up the issue of government employees under the NPS (National Pension System) and incorporated it in its election manifesto with the promise that the party, in the event of coming to power, will restore the OPS (Old Pension Scheme), replacing the NPS. 

Addressing the media at Rajiv Bhawan here today, APCC’s chairman of the Employees and Pensioners Grievance Cell, Bhabesh Chandra Das, said, “The State Government has around 4.50 lakh employees working in various departments… Following a directive from the Government of India, the Government of Assam brought all of its employees appointed after February 1, 2005, under the NPS. Upon retirement, it has come to light that the pension amount under this system is too meagre—an amount that is too small to run a family. In the past five years, around 7,000 employees at the NPS have taken retirement. And the amount they pay as a pension is Rs 700, Rs 1,000, Rs 1,200, Rs 1,800, etc. This is a too-meagre amount. The Pay Commission in 2017 said that to run a small family, a person needs at least Rs 14,532. Taking that into account, the Pay Commission fixed at least Rs 15,900 per month as a pension for a retired employee. It’s a sad situation for an employee to get Rs 700, Rs 1,000, or Rs 1,200 per month as a pension after retirement.”

He said that employees are the ones who run the state machinery, besides steering the social system in the right direction. “Neglecting this working force, depriving them of their dues, and not providing them financial security after retirement by a government is unconstitutional,” Das said.

He said that the Congress-ruled states like Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telengana have kept the OPS intact, as have the governments in West Bengal and Punjab. However, the BJP-ruled states in the country follow the NPS, he added.

Das said, “The Assam Chief Minister was on record telling the Assembly in the last budget session that the economy of Assam would shatter if the government were to restore the OPS. However, in the past ten years, the central government has waived loans from various corporate groups amounting to Rs 14 lakh crore. And in the past ten years, the Central government has deducted Rs 4 lakh crore from employees in the name of NPS and invested them in the insurance sector and the share markets, where profit and loss depend on the fluctuations in the market. This has made the pension under NPS uncertain, besides being meagre in amount. However, if the central government restores OPS, it will need only Rs 1.60 lakh crore annually. A few capitalists own around 50 percent of wealth in India. If the Central Government imposes a 5 percent tax on ten capitalists, it can get the amount needed for OPS.”

He said the Congress has shown a sympathetic attitude towards the employees under the NPS. The party has incorporated the restoration of OPS into the poll manifesto.

 Also Read: OPS will economically break the state: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma (sentinelassam.com)

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