The AAP government in Punjab should have known that not keeping its word would come home to roost in the end.
The state government had promised to implement the old pension scheme (OPS) soon after the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections were announced. But the government has not issued a notification to this effect hitherto, that is, the promise has remained only on paper.
Consequently, the Contributory Pension Fund Employees’ Union (CPFEU) of Punjab is up in arms about it and plans to bring it to the notice of people in Gujarat ahead of elections there.
The union members have decided to visit Ahmedabad and reveal the true colours of AAP to the people of Gujarat.
The HP election has got over, but the Punjab government OPS notification is yet to see the light of day. We have planned to hold a ‘poll khol’ rally in Ahmedabad on November 26 when the electioneering will be at its peak,” said CPFEU president Sukhjeet Singh while talking to The Indian Express.
The Punjab Cabinet had made the OPS announcement on October 22 when Himachal Pradesh poll campaign had just started and employees in Punjab were also sitting on strike with a demand for implementation of OPS as similar promises were being made in the hill state.
However, before going to Gujarat, the CPFEU has decided to give protest letters to all Cabinet ministers/MLAs/district presidents of AAP in all the constituencies of Punjab on November 16 in which demand for notification of OPS will be raised.
We will stay in Gujarat till November 29 and will tell people about the truth of OPS announcement as the state is going to polls on December 1 and December 5. More than 500 CPFEU members will go to Gujarat,” said Sukhjeet Singh.
“On November 26, 2018, a nationwide rally was organised at Ramleela Ground (New Delhi) where Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had come on our stage and supported our demand for restoring OPS. Today his party is ruling in Punjab and he is playing politics in name of OPS.”
OPS was the main poll issue in Himachal Pradesh, and Congress has promised that it will restore OPS in the first Cabinet meeting itself if it’s voted to power.
“From October 10, 37 employee unions had been protesting in Punjab to fast-track the process of OPS. On October 22, the Cabinet took the decision to restore OPS and also increase dearness allowance by 6% in Punjab. Following this development, the employees called off their strike. We had plans to conduct a protest rally at the Ridge in Shimla on October 29, but Punjab Minister Harjot Singh Bains, in-charge of Himachal Pradesh elections, and Surjit Thakur, Himachal Pradesh AAP president, held a meeting with us at Punjab Bhawan on October 27 wherein they appealed to us to withdraw our rally plans after giving an assurance that an OPS notification copy will be given to us at Solan roadshow on November 3. But on November 2, they told us that as the roadshow was only of the Delhi CM, so the notification will be given to us some other day as the Punjab CM wasn’t taking part in that roadshow. However, nothing happened after that. So far, they have paid only lip service to it,” Sukhjeet Singh added.
“Even the notification of hike in DA had ambiguity, as it had no mention of whether it will be implemented from back date or not,” said a CPFEU member.
Sukhjeet Singh said, “We have decided to visit Gujarat now as AAP is making announcements that it has implemented OPS in Punjab, but in reality it’s not so the case. We will go to Ahmedabad and campaign in select pockets to tell people that AAP hasn’t kept its word on OPS in Punjab. It bought time from us in Himachal Pradesh but did nothing. Till we go to Gujarat, we will spread the message through online platforms. In fact, we have already started doing it.”
The old pension scheme, under which the entire pension amount was given by the government, was discontinued in the country from April 1, 2004.
According to the new scheme, employees contribute 10% of their basic salary towards pension while the state government contributes 14%.