Assam govt employees stage sit-in, demand restoration of old pension scheme

Guwahati: Assam government employees staged a demonstration in front of several offices on Tuesday, demanding restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS).

The two-hour protest was carried out under the banner of the All Assam Government NPS Employees Association (AAGNPSEA), a common platform of government workers demanding restoration of OPS in the state, the group said in a release.

The demonstration was held in front of different offices and educational institutions, with the employees reiterating their demand for scrapping the National Pension System (NPS).

The AAGNPSEA questioned the rationale of including teachers and employees with 20-30 years of service record under the NPS, while MLAs and MPs continue to be under OPS after few years of being elected.

Claiming that employees retiring under NPS are getting monthly pension of Rs 500-3,000, they said that such “drastic reduction” in income of individual households has an impact on the economy, as it brings down the spending capacity of people.

“From today, arrangements have been made to distribute petitions about NPS to the general public so that everyone can come forward to solve the problem. The target is to distribute about one million petitions...,” the release said.

AAGNPSEA president Achyutananda Hazarika had earlier said that most employees who retired under the NPS are getting pension of Rs 500, Rs 600 or Rs 1,000 or a maximum of Rs 3,000 a month.

He had also claimed that Assam has around five lakh government employees, out of which around 3.5 lakh are under the NPS.