Lucknow, July 31: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in response to a question about the New Pension Scheme (NPS) in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, said that after the formation of the BJP government in the state, pension accounts of about 8 lakh employees were opened. When the New Pension Scheme was implemented in the year 2005, there was an SP government in the state. BSP was in power from 2007 to 2012 and then SP from 2012 to 2017, but it is unfortunate that pension accounts of not even a single employee were opened.
The Chief Minister said that when this matter came to our notice in 2018, we constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the then Finance Secretary. Relevant experts were also included in it. Discussions were also held with employee organizations. This was an issue related to about eight lakh employees. Then it was revealed that to give 50 percent of the last payment drawn by the employee, it would be necessary for the government to increase its share a little more.
Yogi stated in the assembly that the assessment revealed that if the government and the employee deposit the money on time and the employee connects his money with a scheme, then after retirement he can get up to 60 percent of the money as pension. After this, we have increased the government’s share in the pension scheme from 10 to 14 percent. We opened the accounts of all the employees, the money from 2005 to 2017 which had not gone into the employees’ accounts because there was no account, that money was also deposited.
He said that at the time of implementation of the New Pension Scheme in the year 2005, 70 thousand such employees whose appointment was in the final stage were kept in the Old Pension Scheme, a large number of them are teachers. The complaint of depositing the New Pension Scheme in private banks has been taken seriously and action has also been taken in this, along with the work of bringing back the money has been done. It is the government’s priority that the money of any government scheme should be deposited in a nationalized bank only.
Earlier, the Chief Minister congratulated Lal Bihari Yadav on becoming the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council and quipped that I hope you always remain the Leader of Opposition. He said that this is the Upper House, the members coming here represent all the communities. Some come here from local bodies, some from teacher constituencies, some from graduate voters and on the nomination of the Governor. The government is committed to fully respect your sentiments. Along with this, whatever necessary guidelines are received from the bench, they are also respected.
