Kohima, March 14: The Confederation of All Nagaland State Service Employees’ Association (CANSSEA) today staged a dharna demanding scrapping of the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and restoring the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).
Hundreds of Government employees under the aegis of CANSSEA and Nagaland National Pension System Government Service Employees Forum (NNPGSGSEF) in line with the nation-wide protest led by All India State Government Employees Federation (AISGEF) and the Central Government employees & Workers (CGEW) staged the dharna outside the State Civil Secretariat here.
They held banners and placards some of which read, “annual PFRDA Act, Scrap NPS”, “NPS is fooling people”, “Constitute the 8th Central Pay Commission”, “Release all DR/DA including confiscated arrears” and “Pension is my right” etc.
Speaking to media-persons, CANSSEA president Dr Ilang said that AISGEF and CGEW have placed a seven-point charter of demand but the CANSSEA is focusing on scrapping of NPS as it involves around 40,000 State Government employees.
Nonetheless, he said that to scrap the Act, the State Government alone cannot do it as the Central Government has passed Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Act in 2013 which is regulating the entire NPS system so it has to be repealed in the Parliament.
“We demand scrapping of NPS and to give us our due right – Old Pension Scheme – for all the employees,” he said
He said that OPS is a defined pension scheme of the government where the NPS is a privatized company under which the employees do not know where the money is going or whether the employees will receive the pension or not after retirement.
CANSSEA president said that they are also demanding that one nation, one pension – only old pension schemes should be applied.
He said that four states have already scrapped NPS Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab and Rajasthan and therefore Nagaland should also scrap it and give the old pension schemes to more than 40,000 employees.
The NPS later came to be known as National Pension Scheme is tyrannical, neoliberal policy and a Privatised Pension Scheme which is disastrous to the employees and therefore, the State Government is requested to roll back to the Old Pension System like the States of Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Punjab, he said.
“We will not stop until and unless the Centre gives us our right,” said Dr Ilang. (Page News Service)
