MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the State Government to file the expert committee report on the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for government employees and directed the Chief Secretary, who appeared in the court, not to take action against staff who were involved in the recent nine-day strike.
During the hearing of a contempt petition filed by one Sekaran before a bench of Justices K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan, a senior advocate N G R Prasad submitted that the expert committee constituted to look into the feasibility of implementing the Seventh Pay Commission and the old pension scheme have not submitted its report to the government.
The senior counsel also submitted that the expert committee seems to be giving equal importance to both the old and new pension schemes and seems that the government is giving due importance to the new pension scheme.
Countering this, Advocate-General Vijay Narayan submitted that all States, except West Bengal and Mizoram, accepted the new pension scheme and all employees who joined after April 1, 2003 had given an undertaking that they are bound by the New Pension Scheme. The Advocate-General also submitted that the committee will file its report on September 30 and the government will decide on the report within four to five months.
Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, who was present in the court, submitted that the delay in making the decision of implementing the Old Pension Scheme is due to the need of large financial capital and involvement of various departments and the expert bodies should study on the change of new pension scheme to old pension scheme.
Recording this, the judges directed the expert committee to submit its report on September 30 and directed the State to decide on the report by October 13.
‘E18,016-cr kept in public account’
Chennai: Finance Secretary K Shanmugam on Thursday clarified that the contribution by the employees as well as the government share towards the contributory pension scheme to the tune of D18,016 crore has been parked in public account with interest accrued so far. Also, each and every employee can check online the exact amount in their accounts.
An official release said those who joined duty after April 1, 2003 are brought under Contributory Pension Scheme and 10 per cent of the basic pay and DA is being deducted. The government pays an equal amount. As on March 31, the contribution of 4,62,327 employees and government contribution are kept in the public account. The government has allowed D125.24 crore towards monetary benefits to be given to 3,288 employees under CPS.