The Andhra Pradesh Secretariat CPS Association has demanded that the State government restore the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and do away with the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) instead of the proposed Guaranteed Pension Scheme (GPS).
In a letter submitted to the Principal Secretary (HR), Finance Department, on June 6 (Tuesday), the association said, “Recently, the government has proposed GPS to the employees covered under the CPS. Certain features such as minimum pension, 33% pension guarantee and health card have been added to the existing CPS and the scheme was named GPS. In addition to that, it has been proposed to add inflation protection to the guaranteed pension.”
Association president Rajesh Kotla, vice-president Napa Prasad and additional secretary A. Chalamaiah among others said in their representation that they had expressed their disagreement on the proposed GPS earlier and detailed the reasons. They said that the CPS had failed to provide adequate social security to the employees.
“The Rajasthan government, having a higher number of CPS employees (4.96 lakh) among all the States, has taken a decision to go back to OPS by exercising the powers conferred under Article 309 of the Constitution. Chhattisgarh has also taken a decision to implement OPS. These governments have issued gazette notifications for repealing CPS,” said Mr. Rajesh.
He added that Panjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand had also declared to revert to OPS and Kerala is moving ahead to revert to OPS.
