Employees flay Punjab Govt for not restoring old pension scheme

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 26

The Purani Pension Bahali Sangharsh Committee Punjab on Sunday condemned the state government for its failure to restore the old pension scheme for employees who had been appointed after 2004. Members of the committee said though AAP leaders had promised to do so in the run-up to the elections, the government failed to bring the said resolution in today’s Budget session.

Addressing mediapersons, Kuldeep Walia, convener of the Purani Pension Bahali Sangharash Committee, Jalandhar, said the AAP had promised the employees appointed after 2004 that if their party came to power in Punjab, they would restore the old pension scheme.

They said even present Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who was the leader of the opposition during the Congress government, had participated in the protest rallies regarding the old pension scheme. He had said that the beneficiaries of the new pension scheme were not happy with it. Committee members said Cheema had then promised that the first thing the AAP government would do after coming to power was to restore the old pension scheme.

The committee members rued that Cheema’s response was not in their favour when the issue was raised in question hour today.

They said the government’s response had affected 2 lakh employees who did not find the new pension scheme beneficial for them. They said the government had discouraged the employees who were hoping of getting some support for the issue which they had been raising for long.

Walia said the employees affected by the New Pension Scheme would not sit quiet on the issue and would oppose it in villages, cities and towns. They said Punjab Government employees would also raise awareness against the party’s same policies in Himachal Pradesh. They demanded from the government that it should not implement the new pension scheme to secure employees’ future.

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