Visakhapatnam: YSR Congress president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy may have kept a distance from the Congress, but he seems to be following the Congress electoral pattern and governance model. The Andhra Pradesh cabinet on Wednesday decided to give assured pension of 50 per cent of their final salary to government employees under the Guarantee Pension Scheme (GPS). Information about this has been given in an official statement.
The guarantee pension scheme is similar to the old pension scheme (OPS) promoted by the Congress and implemented in some states. Congress governments in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have restored OPS. In this, 50 percent of the final salary withdrawal amount is to be given to the government employees as pension. The new GPS will replace the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), which the state government employees had been opposing for a long time. The employees were demanding GPS in place of CPS, as CPS does not assure minimum pension. CM Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised to replace CPS with GPS before the 2019 state assembly election.
Under the GPS scheme, eligible employees will receive 50 per cent of their final salary as pension, an official statement said. This will also include dearness allowance like the central government and this allowance will be given twice in a year. According to the release issued by the government, "Keeping in mind the future of the state and the welfare of the employees, changes have been made in the GPS."
The Andhra Pradesh cabinet on Wednesday took important decisions like a guaranteed pension scheme (GPS) for employees, 6,840 new government jobs and regularisation of about 10,000 contractual workers. The State Government has also decided to regularise the contractual workers who have completed five years of service before the date of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh on 2nd June, 2014.
What experts say on OPS, why it was closed:
Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Beri has also expressed concern over the re-implementation of the old pension scheme (OPS). "This will put a burden on future taxpayers. There is a need to improve the fiscal position of this country and promote sustainable development. I'm a little worried about ops being restored. I think this is a matter of concern because the burden will not be on the taxpayers of today, but on the taxpayers and citizens of the future. Economic experts also say that this scheme can create new problems for the already debt-ridden states. This will put a huge economic burden on the upcoming governments. The OPS was discontinued on April 1, 2004, by the Manmohan Singh government after consultation with economic advisers and instead started the National Pension System. However, now the Congress is trying to woo the voters by making the same OPS an issue, which it had closed."
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