If elected in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress promises an old pension scheme and the regularisation of outsourced workers

*Paromita Das

If the Congress wins the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections later this year, it will reinstate the old pension scheme and regularize outsourced employees, according to senior party leader Rajeev Shukla.

Rajeev Shukla, a Congress Working Committee member and AICC in-charge of Himachal Pradesh affairs, claimed that government employees in the state are fed up with the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government’s policies.
According to him, the Congress high command has decided to reinstate the old pension scheme if the party wins the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections. Outsourced employees will also be regularized, he said.

Shukla, who was accompanied by Himachal Pradesh Assembly Leader Mukesh Agnihotri and state Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathour, claimed that the old pension scheme had already been implemented in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Shukla also dismissed the Aam Aadmi Party as a major election challenger. He believes the contest will be between the Congress and the BJP, and that the AAP will have no impact.
According to the Congress leader, AAP performed well in Punjab, where it has been trying its luck for several years. He went on to say that the AAP had not won a single seat in UP or Uttarakhand. Shukla predicted that Congress would win the Assembly elections.

Earlier in the day, the Congress staged a protest outside the Shimla deputy commissioner’s office in protest of the fuel price increase.

The state government employees protested outside the Himachal Pradesh Assembly during the Budget session on March 3 under the banner of the New Pension Scheme Karamchari Mahasangh (NPSKM), demanding the implementation of the old pension scheme.

The country’s previous pension scheme for government employees was phased out on April 1, 2004.
The NPSKM representatives demanded that the state government reinstate the old pension scheme, under which the government provided the entire amount of pension.

Employees contribute 10% of their salary for pensions under the new scheme, while the state government contributes 14%, according to NPSKM representatives.