New pension scheme could pose serious trouble for BJP in Himachal

Sixty-three-year-old K L Saini, a retired professor from Mandi, is a troubled man. With more than 13 years of work as an associate professor at the Government Degree College at Rewalsar, Saini says he had to borrow when Covid struck.

"My bank balance was low, and community members sent groceries over. This has been a humiliating experience for me," he says.

Saini was drawing Rs 1.5 lakh per month when he retired in 2019. Today, he gets a pension of Rs 5,170 per month. He says it is tough for him to make ends meet with three children to look after.

As per the new National Pension Scheme, every month, the government contributed 14% of his salary and dearness allowance, while he deposited 10%, and it amounted to Rs 25 lakh when he retired. While he was given Rs 14 lakh, he cannot withdraw the Rs 9,86,625 that is invested in some companies like SBI Finance, HDFC, and LIC, companies recommended by the National Securities Depository Limited.

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"I will not be able to withdraw the Rs 9 lakh, and my nominee will get it when I die. I feel cheated; if the old scheme was in place, I would have drawn Rs 75,000 monthly," he says.

As the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh heat up, the Jairam Thakur-led BJP government is facing flak over the phasing out the old pension scheme. The issue could prove to be serious trouble for the BJP government in the state. Himachal has approximately 4.5 lakh government employees and a significant number of retired employees, a high proportion for a state that has 55 lakh eligible voters.

Along with army men, government employees hold significant sway in the state. Several employee organisations have taken to the streets or held protest fasts. In Shimla, the anger against the old pension scheme is now an issue on which the Opposition parties, the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, have both cornered the Jairam Thakur government.

New Pension Scheme Employees' Association president Pradeep Thakur says that there are retired professors and doctors, either of class 1 or class 4 category, who are now drawing about Rs 548 monthly. "Imagine someone dedicating 35-40 years to the profession only to earn this paltry sum at the end of the career. At an old age, they have no security; how can they earn?" he asks.

In response to the protests, Mathur was made part of a committee by the government to look at the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme. The 7-member Committee, in which the deputy commissioner of Mandi Arindam Chaudhary, as well as the additional deputy magistrate of Chamba Nishant Thakur, were made members by the government, had several heads of employee associations as members. Mathur says that he does not have much hope from the move since the Committee met only once in August, and there has been no initiative since.

Vinod Kumar, president of the Himachal Parisangh, says that the new scheme was introduced in the Vajpayee-era after the World Bank assessed the money the government was spending on retired government officials. "The government signed an MoU with the World Bank and, consequently, signed MoUs with all state governments. The only expectation was West Bengal. When we faced issues, we met former finance minister Arun Jaitley here, requesting him to increase the state's share to 20% from 10%, and he raised it to 14%. Even if the Centre decides to go back to the old scheme, will it have retrospective benefits? What will happen to the employees who retired from 2004 onwards?" he said.

While they have promised a relook into the matter, BJP leaders said that the move could potentially alienate the state's 12 lakh private job holders. A senior BJP leader, who did not wish to be named, said that spending more money on government officials could prove to be detrimental to them.

"The Virbhadra Singh government had implemented it when he was elected in 2007 and continued it when he was elected again in 2013," the leader said.

Saini says that he blames both parties for the problem.

Congress's Ravinder Rana says that the BJP government at the Centre in 2003 had said that they would trim funding to states before the MoUs were signed with the state governments.

"During the last election, in our manifesto, we verbally assured voters that we would try to do something. This time, we have said that this is first on our agenda — if elected, in 10 days, we will bring back the old scheme. Himachal's people are on the streets, and if Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan can bring back the scheme, Himachal can, too. The BJP has stopped pensions, even for people from paramilitary forces; we vow to bring it back," said Rana.