Former and current employees protested near Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar's residence near Panchkula demanding the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).
Pension Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (PBBS) organised the protest rally. Further the Haryana police resorted to fire tear gas shells and used water cannon to disperse the protesting employees.
"Around 70,000 employees have gathered today to protest. In Rajasthan, the Old Pension Scheme has been implemented. This BJP govt doesn't talk to the employees. We will continue our peaceful protest,” said PBBS spokesperson Praveen Deshwal as reported by ANI.
Why are employees in Haryana Protesting?
Khattar recently claimed, citing a WhatsApp message from a central government official, that “the country would turn bankrupt by 2030 if the Old Pension Scheme is implemented”.
He further stated that “Nobody can implement it without (the clearance of) Parliament,”
Then after this senior Congress leader and former Haryama CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda promised to reverse the Old Pension Scheme if Congress is elected to power again in Haryana.
The governments of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand previously informed the central government and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) of their decision to relaunch the OPS for their employees.
The adoption of the OPS for state government employees who are now covered under the NPS was also announced by the Punjab government on November 18, 2022.
The National Pension System (NPS), a defined contribution pension plan, was introduced by the Union government in 2004 to replace the prior pension plan.
About old pension scheme
In the old pension regime, pension was 50 percent of the last drawn salary of the employee and the entire amount was paid by the government.
How is it different from the current one?
The old pension scheme was discontinued on April 1, 2004, and replaced with the National Pension System (NPS). NPS, a government-run investment scheme, gives the subscriber the option to set the preferred allocation to different asset classes. The returns in NPS are not guaranteed and depend on the performance of the asset allocation by the subscriber based on his/her risk-taking capability during the employment tenure.
Under this scheme, the employees contribute 10 percent of their salary towards pension, and the state government contributes 14 percent. The amount is then deposited with Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), where it is invested.
(Image credit: ANI)
