Congress & SP promises revival of Old Pension Scheme in Uttat Pradesh

The revival of the Old Pension Scheme for government employees is mentioned in both the Samajwadi Party and the Congress election manifestos in Uttar Pradesh.

Last month, Akhilesh Yadav promised that if his party won power, he would reinstate an "old pension scheme" that existed prior to 2005. (the SP was in power at the time, led by Mulayam Singh Yadav). Durga Shanker Mishra, the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh, convened a meeting with officials six days later and published a statement outlining how the "old pension scheme" was more beneficial. The Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, then went after Akhilesh, claiming that the "new pension scheme" had been approved in 2005 by Mulayam and had been sitting in cold storage since then.

On Wednesday, the Congress also got into the game, with its manifesto promising a “mid-way” solution.

Those retiring around 2030-35 would benefit from whichever programme is finally implemented, as it would apply to those employed after 2004. But in the immediate term, all parties are focused on the 12 lakh government workers and their families.

The scheme, now referred to as the National Pension System (NPS), was introduced by the Centre for all appointments after January 1, 2004. The Centre had left it to states to adopt the new system and ironically it was the Mulayam government which did adopted the NPS in the Uttar Pradesh  in 2005. 

Navneet Sehgal, the government's Additional Chief Secretary for Information, stated that returning to the old system was "practically impossible." First, any state that wanted to leave the plan after the Centre had notified them needed the Centre's permission. Second, he claimed that Rs 20,000 crore of the cash raised from employee and government contributions had already been invested in the market for a set period of time.

He also stated that in discussions with employees, they had clarified that the benefits they would receive in 20 years would not be any less than they would have received under the previous scheme. "The government's priority is to ensure that employees receive no less than they would have received under the previous plan," Sehgal added.