Replying to the budget debate in the Assembly on Thursday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot defended the government’s decision to implement the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) saying that it is “being discussed across the country and is a very sentimental and humanitarian issue.”
Quoting an article he had written for some newspapers, the CM said that the Human Rights Commission too had said that the New Pension System should be reconsidered. “The National Judicial Pay Commission too had said that this should not be implemented,” Gehlot said.
Next, he said that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had constantly pointed out issues with the NPS, “(Under NPS) all the money is invested in the share market. Now how does one know what the condition of the share market will be in 30-40 years? The mutual funds and share markets fluctuates, which had led to concern among the people, that what will happen when they retire.”
He said that in contrast, people know OPS “and the country has developed in 70 years due to OPS. That experiment is before you all…History is made by those who are serious about history and appreciate it.”
The CM also referred to an The Indian Express article which criticised the state government’s decision to implement OPS.
“I heard today – I haven’t read – that a Rajasthan cadre IAS officer who became the C&AG, made comments in The Indian Express that this shouldn’t be implemented. I want to ask the official who wrote this article, that when the scheme was implemented in 2004, if it was implemented in a way that the scheme will be implemented for all the old employees and the new employees, then he would have known how things are…he would have known what his future is,” Gehlot said.