Chandigarh, December 21
Insisting on the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme of 2003 in place of NPS (New/National Pension Scheme), the Aam Aadmi Party has accused the ruling Congress party of stabbing, the millions of pension holders/current employees, in the backs. Referring to the continues protest against New Pension Scheme and crores of arrear amount that Punjab government and Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal are absconding from, AAP said that Punjab government is sitting like a snake on the earning of pensioners.
In a statement issued from party headquarters on Tuesday, Punjab senior leader and Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema lambasted Congress government over the issue of pension scheme and took a jibe at Chief Minister Charanjit Singh channi saying that “Common Man CM made protesting pensioners wait for five hours, then met them only for 3 minutes, as he had very busy schedule, there must be some big announcements that he have to make.”
In 2004 a New Pension scheme, later named National Pension Scheme (NPS,) was introduced, and ever since employees in Punjab has been opposing it. Harpal Cheema accused that Punjab Pradesh Congress used this issue of employees and pensioners to their political benefit, promising to bring back Old Pension Scheme in Punjab after the formation of Congress government in 2017. He added that like every other promise of Congress it happened to be hot air balloon too because Punjab govt. has been looting the current and retired government employees of Punjab since the day they came in power in 2017. He said that the current Punjab government had even failed to implement 6th pay commission which was supposed to be effective from 1 January 2016, let alone the 7th pay commission.
Criticizing Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Harpal Cheema said that even after inflation allowance was recommended to be 125 in 2016 pay commission and a multiply of 2.59 was decided in legislator and cabinet too, but ‘Manpreet Commission’ reduced the amount to 113 and multiplier to 2.42 according to his own convenience claiming empty exchequer as always. He said Manpreet Badal’s exchequer never had a penny for pensioners, govt. employees and common people of Punjab. He also ridiculed government’s plan to pay arrears of last five years after 2022 election that too in 9 installments over four and a half years. He said that Congress is so sure they won’t be back in power that’s why they are postponing such payments. He asked, “If pensioner is over the age of 75 or 80, and needed this money right now, then what good will this 9 installment plan do to them?”
In the statement, LoP also brought up the lack of simple example which was supposed to be there from the beginning for the convenience of all the pension holders. He alleged that the government has made the whole pension scheme more complex on purpose and simple example is missing because they have no regard for 80-90 years old pension holders, who can’t frequent govt. offices every day. He said that more than 3 lakh pensioners are suffering due to incompetence and ignorance of Congress govt. that backed out from their promise to restore old pension scheme. He further added that with the formation of their government in state, AAP will restore old pension scheme and make the process as simple and accessible as possible to ease the lives of employees (current and retired) who had been wronged for so long.
