About 3,000 civil defence workers, under the banner of All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), staged a protest at Jantar Mantar on Monday, demanding that the new pension scheme (NPS) be scrapped and the old pension scheme be restored.
The AIDEF, an umbrella organisation of various unions working in the defence sector, has submitted a memorandum to Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman and Jitendra Singh, pointing out that the employees under the NPS, despite their contribution during the entire service period, are getting only a meagre pension.
AIDEF general secretary C. Srikumar told The Hindu that such a protest was needed as the Centre has decided to stop pension even for soldiers. “We were demanding that civilian employees in the defence sector should get pension as per the old scheme as soldiers in Army, Navy and Air Force avail now. But instead, the Centre decided to recruit soldiers on contract and started Agnipath,” Mr. Srikumar said.
