Historic demonstration of Central, State employees and teacher demanding restoration of OPS
Memorandum on common issues of Central and State Govt. Employees submitted to the Hon;ble President of India through the Governor of Odisha
Memorandum on specific issues related to the State Govt. employees and Teachers submitted to the Chief Minister of Odisha
Under the banner of National Joint Council of Action (NJCA), Odisha Circle branch comprising all Central Govt. employees including Railways and all State Govt. employees including Teachers, a mass demonstration programme was conducted in Bhubaneswar on 26.04.2023. Thousands of employees from all departments of Central / State Govt. with the banners and flags of their respective organizations assembled near Master Canteen Square, Bhubaneswar and went on a huge rally to the lower PMG area where a grand meeting was conducted under the President-ship of Com. Rabindranath Dhal, President, NJCA, Odisha. The meeting was addressed by Com. P K Patsahani, Convenor, NJCA Odisha and General Secretary, East Coast Railway Sharamik Union, Com. Bruhaspati Samal, General Secretary, Confederation of Central Govt. Employees and Workers, Odisha State Coordination Committee and Joint Convenor, NJCA Odisha, Com. B B Panigrahi and Com. Prakash Chandra Mohanty, President and General Secretary, Odisha Secondary School Teachers’ Association respectively, Com. Prasant Kumar Mohanty and Com. Sujit Kumar Behera, President and General Secretary, Odisha State Govt. Employees Coordination Committee respectively, Com. Chitta Ranjan Pattnaik, General Secretary, Income Tax Employees Federation, Odisha, Com. Panchanan Jena, General Secretary, Odisha Contractual Teachers’ Union, Com. Sukant Behera, General Secretary AlOSSTA and many other senior leaders from many sister unions including Bank, LIC and both Central and State Govt. Pensioners’ Associations in Odisha.
Addressing the gathering, all the leaders
criticised the anti-employee policies of both the Central and State Govt. Frequent changes in the pension policies of the
Govt. of India with introduction of New Pension Scheme or National Pension
Scheme (NPS) with effect from 1st January, 2004 which became applicable
to all new entrants to central government services (except the Army, Navy and
Air Force) and adopted by all State Governments except Govt. of Tamilnadu and
West Bengal, crores of
Central and State Govt. employees and pensioners are now quite apprehensive
regarding the future of pension which is treated as a major social security in
the fag end of their life. Since 2004 till date continuous
struggle is going on both by the Central and State Govt. employees to scrap NPS
and restore OPS. Now under the
banner of NJCA rigorous State level and National level agitational programmes
are being undertaken every month under the bannner of Joint Forum for
Restoration of Old Pension Scheme (JFROPS) which is getting momentum day by
day. As such, encumbered with decisions taken by various State Governments like
Jharkhand, Rajastan, Chhatisgarh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to rollback to
OPS, Andhra Pradesh Govt.’s decision to offer a guaranteed pension of 33% of
the last basic pay without any monthly deduction from the employees’ salary and
latest by Maharastra Govt. to exit from the NPS only because of the continuous
struggle programmes conducted by each State Govt. employees including teachers
in association with the Central Govt. employees and trade unions, now the
Hon’ble Finance Minister on 24th March, 2023 has set up a Committee
to propose changes for improvising NPS.
Considering the gravity of the continuous struggle programmes of the
employees and pensioners, it was expected that the Central Govt. would take a
constructive step and declare in the last Budget Session to scrap NPS since
ahead there is the year of General Election. But by constituting the committee,
the Govt. has tried to adopt a tactical way to smoothly overcome the year of
election and to divert the employees from their struggle path which is next to
impossible. The demand of the employees is not to improve, but to scrap NPS
including PFRDA Act, 2013 and restore OPS.
Above all, the OPS is a defined benefit scheme without any contribution from the employee and guaranteeing minimum pension of 50% of the last pay drawn subject to minimum of Rs.9000/- per month plus DR (7th CPC norms). There is also a benefit of getting a lump sum amount equivalent to 40% of the pension at the time of superannuation as the commutation value which is restored after 15 years. In addition, the pension amount is increased by 20% each 5 years starting at the age of 80 and doubling the pension amount at the age of 100 of the pensioner. There is neither such social security nor any guarantee of minimum pension under NPS. Even though the employee contributes 10% of his salary every month in addition to 14% similar contribution by the employer, the NPS beneficiary gets a meagre amount confined to maximum 10% of the last pay drawn as monthly pension illustrated as above. To manage their families, such pensioners are now seen to work as daily-wagers, street vendors and even suicidal cases are being witnessed in case of failures.
In addition, the leaders stressed on removal of Labour Code, constitution of 8th CPC, stop privatization, corporatization and outsourcing of Govt. establishments, fill up of all vacant posts, regularization of all casual, part-time and contractual workers including Gramin Dak Sewaks of India Posts, payment of 18 months DA/DR, removal of cap from compassionate appointment, protection of trade union rights etc.
After the meeting was over, a delegation comprising Com. P K Patsahani, Com. Bruhaspati Samal, Com. Prakash Mohanty, Com. Prasanna Mohanty and Com. Sunil Mitra proceeded to Governor House to submit a memorandum on all the above common issues to the Hon’ble Governor of Odisha drawing the kind attention of Hon’ble President of India with appeal to direct the Central Govt. for early redressal of the issues. Similarly another memorandum was also submitted to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha pertaining to the specific issues related to the State Govt. employees and Teachers.
On behalf of NJCA Odisha, we sincerely acknowledge the cooperation of the leaders and their members who have participated in the mass rally and made it a grand success.
Bruhaspati Samal
General Secretary
Confederation Odisha CoC
&
Joint Convenor, NJCA, Odisha
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