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Punjab Govt To Implement Old Pension Scheme, State Cabinet Okays Notification

Old Pension Punjab

Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has given approval to the notification for implementing the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in the state.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the council of ministers held under the leadership of the Chief Minister. A spokesperson of the Chief Ministerโ€™s Office said the decision will benefit over 1.75 lakh government employees. About 1.26 lakh employees are already covered under the existing Old Pension Scheme.

The spokesperson said the state government has approved the Old Pension Scheme for its employees currently covered under New Pension Scheme (NPS) fulfilling a long pending demand of employees of the state.

The spokesperson said the scheme is expected to benefit more than 4, 100 employees in the next five years alone.

โ€œThe scheme is aimed at safeguarding the future of government employees and recognizing their immense contribution towards the state. In order to ensure that the scheme being introduced is financially sustainable for the exchequer in future also, the state government will be contributing proactively towards creation of a pension corpus which will service the pension in future to the beneficiaries of the scheme,โ€ the spokesperson said.

This contribution towards the pension corpus will be Rs 1,000 crore per annum initially and will gradually increase in future.

In addition to this, the current accumulated corpus with NPS is Rs 16,746 crore for which the state government will request Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to refund this amount for effective utilization at its end.

The cabinet reiterated its firm commitment that the scheme will be made self-sustainable from the resources available with the exchequer adding that under no circumstance, the future of employeesโ€™ will be jeopardized.

 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by HW News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Change of guard at CPI next month, Sudhakar Reddy to step down

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Hyderabad | The CPI would see a change of guard next month with its General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy deciding to step down on health grounds after holding the post for more than seven years, sources in the party said.

Reddy, who assumed charge of the partyโ€™s top post on March 31, 2012, and was serving a third term scheduled to end in 2021, is firm on announcing his โ€œretirementโ€ at the national council meeting to be held in Delhi on July 20, they said.

The 77-year-old veteran Communist leader โ€œcan not travel much, has lung problems, allergy to air-conditioning and discomfort facing extreme heat and cold,โ€ they said.

โ€œHe (Reddy) is firm on retiring,โ€ a senior CPI leader told PTI.

Party national secretary D Raja, All India Trade Union Congress general secretary Amarjeet Kaur and Kerala secretary Kanam Rajendran are seen to be front-runners to succeed Reddy, a former Lok Sabha member from Telangana.

Sources said the partyโ€™s new boss would be picked by consensus.

Raja is the senior-most in the central secretariat, a known leader but has never been a state secretary and also not contested the Lok Sabha elections.

โ€œThey (Kerala unit) are not interested, thatโ€™s the problem, we wanted them to take over,โ€ sources said when asked about possibilities of leaders from the southern state being in the reckoning.

Some party functionaries are also pursuing with Rajendran to take over, sources said.

The CPI is the second biggest constituent in the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala.

โ€œShe (Kaur) is in trade union. If there is consensus, she can become the party general secretaryโ€, sources said.

Whoever takes over would have a tough challenge to revive the fortunes of the party, which put up a dismal show in the recent Lok Sabha elections, winning only two seats.

Meanwhile, Reddy had a discussion with his CPI-M counterpart Sitaram Yechury on the issue of reunification of the Communist parties.

โ€œReddy discussed with Yechury, told him he should raise it in their central committee, he (Yechury) forwarded our (CPIโ€™s) letter to their politburo,โ€ a CPI leader said.

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