Thousands of employees of various State and Union governments and public sector units belonging to the Government Employees National Confederation (GENC) held a rally in New Delhi on Wednesday demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS). A delegation of the workers also met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and told her through a memorandum that dissatisfaction, resentment and grief arose among workers over the National Pension Scheme (NPS). The GNEC is the industrial unit of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the trade union of the Sangh Parivar.
The leaders said the OPS was a guaranteed pension amounting to a minimum of 50% of the last basic pay with provision of dearness relief for price neutralisation and a mandatory revision in tune with the recommendations of the Central Pay Commissions. The protesting workers were mostly from Defence, Railways, Postal and Central government establishments like the Archaeological Survey of India and EPFO.
