Jaipur, (Samajweekly) A day after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman refused to give the money kept aside for the New Pension Scheme (NPS) to the state governments for the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday urged the Central government to bring a law on social security.
Gehlot said that the Finance Minister’s statement lacks clarity.
“She should not beat around the bush if she felt that OPS was wrong and should have said the same clearly,” he said.
The Congress leader said Sitharaman’s stand on OPS is not a humane approach in terms of employees’ point of view, adding that the OPS should be accepted to create trust among the employees.
“Employees’ money cannot be deployed in a volatile stock market. The judicial commission says that it will not accept NPS (New Pension Scheme). OPS is applied to High Court judges and the Army as well, however in paramilitary forces, it is NPS. What is this understanding of the Central government?” he wondered.
Criticising both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Sitharaman over the OPS, the senior Congress leader said: “We have backed the OPS. However, Sitharaman is opposing the OPS. The Prime Minister has also spoken against it in Parliament as well.
“But we will deal with them (Modi and Sitharaman). If the government repeats it, the scheme will become stronger. We won’t let the OPS finish,” Gehlot said while speaking at a statue unveiling ceremony at Raghunandpura in Jaipur district.
Gehlot said, “we have welfare schemes for social security”.
“They talk about becoming Vishwaguru. You will become Vishwaguru only when you work for social security. Weekly money is received under social security in foreign nations. The Central government should also make a law for social security,” he added.
The Rajasthan Chief Minister further said: “Our schemes are very strong. I think this time the public wants the government to repeat it. Just don’t fall for their tricks this time. During the previous government, when there was a storm in Badrinath-Kedarnath, many people from Rajasthan were killed. At that time, I decided that I would give jobs to the families of those killed in that accident. We gave jobs to 20-25 people. The new government stopped the jobs of the remaining people. Those who had got jobs were also fired.”
