Restore Old Pension System: Trinamool Congress' Rajya Sabha MP To Centre

The Trinamool Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen on Thursday urged the Central government to restore the old pension system which is dearness relief-linked and offsets price rise or inflation.

This assumes significance as some states, including Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Punjab, have already restored the old pension system. This was one of the main issues during the recently concluded assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.

The Government of India and many states shifted to National Pension Scheme (NPS) in 2004 from the old pension system.

In her special mention in the Rajya Sabha, Sen said, "The National Pension Scheme (NPS) is a tragedy for retiring personnel. The pension under the current scheme is just 15 per cent of the pension under the previous one (old pension system)."

She mentioned that many retired employees have also written to the government to restore the old pension system. The employees covered under NPS are worse off than those under the old pension system despite contributing 10 per cent of wages towards the new scheme, Sen stated.

The TMC MP pointed out that there is no dearness relief for pensioners under NPS to offset price rise or inflation.

"There is an urgent need to address the concerns of employees and take necessary steps to include dearness relief as part of the pension scheme and restore the old one. I urge the central government to address this concern," she said.

BJD member Sasmit Patra raised the issue of bringing a women reservation bill.

"I urge the government that women reservation bill should be passed in the Parliament at the earliest. It will be a historic step in the direction of empowering 66 crore women in the country," he said.

The DMK's R Girirajan raised the issue of leakage of obnoxious gases from factories in north Chennai. He said people are spending sleepless nights due to gas leakage and pollution caused by public and private companies (factories).

He urged the Union government to take urgent action to stop the leakage of gas from public sector undertakings in the area.

BJP member Kavita Patidar demanded installation of information boards containing a detailed history of temples and prominent places on their premises. Her party colleague and MP Shambu Sharan Patel urged the central government to change the name of the Bakhtiyarpur railway station in Patna District of Bihar.

Mentioning that Bakthtiyar Khilji was responsible for the bloodshed and destruction of the Nalanda University in the 12th century, he suggested that the Bakhtiarpur railway station be rechristened on the names of Lord Buddha, Acharya Chanakya or Chandragupta Maurya.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)