NMOPS delegation in Nagaland over pension scheme issue

Kohima, March 17 (EMN): A delegation of the National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS) Delhi unit led by its president Dr. Manjeet Singh Patel met with Advisor for Labour, Employment and Skill Development, Excise, Moatoshi Longkumer in Dimapur over the nationwide demand for repealing of the national pension scheme (NPS). 

Patel, who is also the convener of the NMOPS north-eastern states, requested the advisor to take “cognizance” of the issue of old age social income security of employees after retirement, pointing out that the new pension scheme is “incompatible” to provide this security.

Meanwhile, it was informed that the advisor had acknowledged the issue as “genuine” and in the “favour” of the NMOPS’ mission of restoring the old pension scheme. But maintaining that the NMOPS is not an organisation from Nagaland, he is said to have told the delegation to bring the association concerned from the state in the next meeting.

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The Confederation of Nagaland State Services Employees Association (CANSSEA) had on Tuesday staged a dharna outside the Nagaland Civil Secretariat in Kohima, demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme and scrapping the NPS.

It is said that more than 40,000 government employees in Nagaland come under the NPS.

The protestors claimed that NPS is a “privatised company” where employees do not know where they are going while the old pension scheme is a “defined” scheme.

The CANSSEA is said to have assured the NMOPS Delhi unit delegation -- Dr. Patel, Dr. Vijay Tiwari and Dr. Vishnu Pandey -- of its support to jointly fight to scrap the NPS, during a meeting in Kohima on Thursday.

It may be mentioned that the Central government had passed the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act (PFRDA), 2003, which regulates the entire NPA system.

The NPS has been scrapped in four Indian states including Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. West Bengal has never implemented the NPS.