PU finance board to approach Centre on old pension scheme

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, June 13

The Board of Finance (BoF), Panjab University, has decided to write to the Ministry of Education (MoE) for suggestions to implement the old pension scheme (OPS), claimed sources. Recently, a BoF meeting was held and one of the agendas was to discuss the option of OPS for university employees who had joined before 2004 when the new pension scheme was announced.

The move is expected to burden the university with a net liability of around Rs 490 crore. Punjab had given its employees, aged below 35 till 2006, an option to go with OPS and a proposal to adopt Punjab’s policy, which was also on the BoF agenda. Under this scheme employees aged above 35 were automatically covered under the new scheme. “It has been decided to approach the MoE for their comments. This will help the university to seek funds from the Centre, if this gets approved,” claimed a source. The OPS gives retired employees a guaranteed monthly pension. Under the National Pension Scheme, deductions are made in the employees’ salary to pay the pension. Under this scheme, 711 employees are to be covered. A total to 420 have retired and 291 are still in service.

Meanwhile, the BoF has decided to approach the Punjab Government regarding continuation of benefit of secretariat pay. It is a special pay granted to some category of employees (mainly in state civil secretariats). It is higher than the salary being given to similar category of employees at other places.

In May this year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had quashed the Punjab government’s instructions of 2019, whereby two universities in the state along with the PU were told to discontinue secretariat pay. The petitioners had argued that the benefit granted was in conformity with the provisions of the statute, which empowers the university to grant the benefit of pay scales/grade pay/allowances on a par with employees of the Punjab civil secretariat.

Meanwhile, the BoF also approved other agendas, including purchasing of new vehicle for the university VC, enhancement of fixed allowance to paramedical attendants for additional duties and pay protections to some faculty members and others.