THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Finance Minister KN Balagopal has said that the government would form an assured pension scheme after studying the new pension schemes implemented in various states. He also said that the government is trying to implement a pension scheme that will give financial security to pensioners by re-examining the existing scheme.
The state has around 5.3 lakh government employees and teachers and an estimated 6 lakh pensioners. There are apprehensions among pro-government service organisations and opposition-led organisations on the pension scheme. CPM-backed NGO Union has taken a cautious stance of wait and watch.
“The government has only announced the scheme,” NGO Union state general secretary M A Ajith Kumar told TNIE. “The details are yet to be known. We will respond after getting the details,” he said. When asked about the LDF’s promise to withdraw the participatory pension scheme, Ajith said that the Left front had not promised the withdrawal of the scheme, but only a re-examination.
“The Central government is bringing in stringent provisions so that states would not go back to the statutory scheme,” Ajith said. “We are now demanding the abolition of the ‘Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act’”, he added.
Congress-led NGO Association accused the government of deceiving government employees and teachers. “In its 2016 manifesto, the LDF had promised that it would go back to the old pension scheme,” NGO Association state president Chavara Jayakumar told TNIE.
“In the 2021 manifesto, it was repeated. Now they are saying that they are going to study the Andhra Pradesh model,” he said. Congress-affiliated Kerala Secretariat Association office-bearers burned the copies of state budget in protest against declining their demands.
‘Drastic measures needed’
Economists are of the view that unless the government takes drastic measures, Kerala will not be able to escape from the current financial stress. Developmental economist K P Kannan had earlier said in TNIE’s ‘Express Dialogue’ that cutting unnecessary expenditure -pension ceiling, modifying leave surrender and increasing retirement age- could help generate close to Rs 10,000 crore.