Nagaland State Govt employees want restoration of old pension scheme

State government employees under the banner of Confederation of All Nagaland State Service Employees Association (CANSSEA) and Nagaland National Pension System Government Service Employees Forum (NNPSGSEF) staged a protest demonstration outside Civil Secretariat, here on Tuesday demanding restoration of old pension scheme (OPS) and scrapping of National Pension Scheme.
After the protest, the CANSSEA president Dr Ilang and general secretary Dr. Hovithal Sothu submitted a representation to the chief secretary Nagaland.
In the representation, CANSSEA demanded that NPS of the state government be scrapped and restore the OPS for its employees. The association described NPS as “tyrannical, neoliberal policy and a Privatized Pension Scheme”, which it said was disastrous to the employees.
The representation urged the state government to roll back to the OPS like the states of Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Punjab.
The representation stated that dharna was carried out as per the declaration of the Joint National Convention of the All India State Government Employees Association (AISGEF) and Central Government Employees & Workers (CGEW) made on December 8, 2022 at Talkotora Stadium New Delhi, which came up with seven-point charter of demands to be carried out all over the country.
The demands included Annul PFRDA Act, Scrap NPS, Constitute the VIII Central Pay commission, release all DR/DA including confiscated arrears, regularize all contractual/daily waged employees and fill up vacancies in state government, stop privatization/corporatization of PSUs, remove all riders and restrictions on compassionate employment and ensure democratic trade union rights.
Speaking at the protest site, CANSSEA president Dr Ilang said the government has to repeal the Act passed as PFRDA Act, the regulatory Act, governing the NPS of the employees.
He said NPS should be scrapped and give the employees their due rights.
Besides seven charters of demands, Dr. Ilang said CANSSEA was focused on NPS, which Nagaland has around 40,000 employees, adding that NPS must be scrapped.
Describing NPS as “a privatized company”, he said the employees did not know where the money goes and whether the employees would be getting pension.
Therefore, he said the government of India should scrap the Act and roll back to OPS “one nation, one pension”.
When the states like Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan had already scrapped the NPS and West Bengal had never implemented, he said there was no reason why Nagaland should not scrap the scheme.
He affirmed that CANSSEA would not stop until and unless government repealed the Act.
CANSSEA vice president Chuba Yanger said it was because of the neo-liberalization that the private party was given more authority leading to poor economy of the state and society was in danger.
Even those under OPS, Yanger said was not sure what would happen. He said the fate of those employees under NPS lay in the hands of the private companies.