Naval civilian employees along with union leaders of Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh while protesting outside the gates of Goa Naval Area Headquarters in Vasco.
Photo Credits: Vikram Nayak
VASCO
All Goa Naval Civilian Employees Union on Friday demanded the scrapping of the National Pension Scheme (NPS).
A number of employees along with leaders of Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) protested outside the gate of the Naval Goa Area Headquarters in Vasco, demanding the scrapping of NPS and restoration of Old Pension Scheme (OPS)
Speaking to media, BMS General Secretary K Prakash said they had even written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the Flag Officer Commanding Goa Naval Area (FOGA) on the demand of employees.
“As per this NPS, 10% of Basic Pay + DA is being recovered from employees as compulsory deduction and government is also contributing 14% of Basic Pay + DA of the employees. A government servant can exit at or after the age of 60 years and it would be mandatory for him to invest 40 per cent of pension wealth to purchase an annuity which will provide for pension for life time of the employee and his dependent parents/ spouse,” said Prakash.
"This method and the new system has no minimum guaranteed pension and there is no safeguard from price hike in absence of dearness allowance in pension. There is no benefit of additional pension on attaining age of 80 years and above and also, no safeguard in case of missing employees. There is no compulsory retirement pension nor compensation pension," said Prakash.
Prakash claimed that under the NPS, new entrants will not be eligible for Superannuation Pension, Compensation Pension, Compulsory Retirement pension, Compassionate Allowance, etc.
“Any scheme not containing these benefits is not acceptable to employees. Introduction of NPS for central government employees has adversely affected the concept of social security provided by the government and it has put the future as well as retirement security (social security) of employees at stake, given the lack of minimum guaranteed pension under the scheme.”
Prakash said during the election of five states, many political parties had assured employees in their manifesto that if they were to come into power, they would implement the old pension scheme.
“We demand the scraping of NPS and restoring of CCS (Pension) rules or Guaranteed Minimum Pension equal to half of last drawn salary in NPS and linked with dearness/inflation," said Prakash.
