Himachal unions demand to follow Rajasthan to restore old pension scheme

The Himachal Pradesh State New Pension Scheme (NPS) Retired Employees Federation and the Kangra District NPS Employees Association have demanded that Rs 7,442.51 crore in funds be deposited with the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) for pension disbursement under the NPS be withdrawn immediately.

In a joint statement issued here yesterday, Sanjiv Guleria, state president of the federation, and Rajinder Minhas, president of the Kangra association, said the total money given had reached Rs 7,442.51 crore.

They urged the state government to utilise it to restore the old pension plan (OPS), which has been causing over one lakh NPS employees problems since 2014.

They stated that employees had rejected the NPS, which had been imposed by the Central Government in January 2004, but that the then-Virbhadra government had notified them in 2006, with a backdate of May 15, 2003.

They bemoaned the fact that retired NPS personnel were living in poverty since their pension was insufficient to support them.

According to information received under the RTI Act, the state government paid the NSDL Rs 17.85 crore in fund management fees from May 2003 to December 2021.

"The employees of the National Pension System are opposed to investing their pension funds on the stock market." The state government should take money out of the NSDL, as the Rajasthan government has done, and use it to repair the OPS and create a development fund," they added.

They claimed that the government revealed during the last Budget session, in response to an Opposition MLA's question, that the exchequer needs Rs 2,000 crore in one go and Rs 500 crore every year to restore the OPS, which could be readily managed by withdrawing cash deposited with the NSDL.