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New pension accounts of 8 lakh employees opened since 2017: CM Yogi
Yogi Adityanath was speaking In response to a question on the New Pension Scheme (NPS) in Vidhan Parishad
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said since his government took office in 2017, new pension accounts of approximately 8 lakh state government employees had been opened in Uttar Pradesh. In response to a question on the New Pension Scheme (NPS) in Vidhan Parishad, he highlighted significant strides made by his government in this regard.
“The NPS was originally implemented in 2005 during the tenure of the SP government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav. Despite the BSP being in power from 2007 to 2012 and the SP from 2012 to 2017, not a single pension account was opened for employees during those periods,” the CM said.
He further said in 2018, upon discovering issues with the pension accounts, his administration formed a committee chaired by the then finance secretary. The committee also included relevant experts and held discussions with employee organisations, addressing concerns that affected around 8 lakh employees.
Yogi explained that the committee found it essential for the government to increase its contribution slightly to provide 50% of the employee’s last drawn salary as pension.
Assessments indicated if both the government and employees deposited money on time and connected their contributions to a scheme, employees could receive approximately 60 percent of their money as pension after retirement.
“To address this, the government’s share in the pension scheme was increased from 10 percent to 14 percent. The accounts of all employees were opened and contributions from 2005 to 2017, which had not been deposited due to the lack of accounts, were also credited,” Yogi added.
He said approximately 70,000 employees, who were in the final stages of appointment when the NPS was implemented in 2005, have been retained under the old pension scheme, with many of these employees being teachers. The CM also addressed concerns about the NPS funds being deposited in private banks, stating that these complaints had been taken seriously.
He assured that actions had been taken to rectify this and efforts were underway to ensure the return of these funds. Yogi emphasised that it was a priority for the government to ensure that money from any government scheme was deposited only in nationalised banks.
In response to another supplementary question, the CM said in the past seven years, the government had initiated several schemes for the welfare of workers and had operated 120 sugar mills.
Earlier, Yogi congratulated Lal Bihari Yadav on becoming the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Legislative Council. He quipped, “I hope you always remain the Leader of the Opposition.”
He highlighted the diverse representation in the Upper House where members come from various societies, including local bodies, teacher constituencies, graduate voters, and nominations by the governor.
He affirmed the government’s commitment to fully respecting the members’ sentiments and adhering to any necessary guidelines received from the bench, regarding members’ demand for increase in their salaries and perks.
The question of salary hike of MLCs was raised by Leader of Opposition Lal Bihari Yadav and all members including those of the BJP supported the demand.
