Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
On 22nd July 2024, the Minister of State for Finance informed in a written reply to a question asked by a MP that there is no proposal under consideration of the Government of India for the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in respect of Central Government employees.
Similarly, to another question the minister replied that though the Government has received two representations for constitution of 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC), there is no such proposal under consideration of the Government at present.
It will be recalled that in 2003, the then government unilaterally introduced the contributory Pension Scheme namely New Pension Scheme (NPS) in place of non-contributory guaranteed OPS. The government claimed that under the NPS the money contributed by employees and the Government will be invested in the market and there will be huge returns from which they will get a good amount of pension. However, the employees who are now retiring find that they are getting only paltry pension from the NPS. They therefore have been demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme.
In response to the large-scale agitation of both central and central government employees during the last few years all over the country for the restoration of the OPS, the government constituted a committee in March 2023 to improve the NPS. Even after 15 months, the Committee has not submitted its recommendations.
As regards the CPC, it is the right of the Central Government employees to get the wages revised once in 10 years considering the inflation. The 7th CPC was set up in February 2014 and submitted its recommendation in November 2015. Its recommendations were implemented from 1st January 2016. Even the 7th CPC had done injustice to the Central Government employees without giving them a reasonable wage hike. Therefore, there is no justification on the part of the Government to reject the genuine demand of the employees.