Government should hike its pension contribution: BJP

NAGPUR: Realizing that the traditional unions do not bother much about private sector employees, whose numbers are increasing by the day, BJP has decided to fill in the gap by seeking higher pension for them.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javdekar demanded that central government should increase its contribution towards pension of private sector employees. "Under the Employees Pension Scheme 1995, the employee contributes 8.33% of his monthly salary while the government's contribution is only 1.16%. Under this structure the employee just gets a monthly pension of Rs 1,000. If government increases its contribution to 8.33% the pension will increase to Rs 3,000 per month.

"A pension of Rs 1,000 per month is peanuts and would hardly help anybody. It has to increase to realistic levels," he stressed.

Javdekar further said that if government took this step then it would benefit 36 lakh private sector employees. The central government will have to bear an annual burden of Rs 7,000 crore, he added.

The BJP leader said that BJP's pension association had organized a convention on May 6 in Wardha to discuss this demand. Chandrapur MP Hansraj Ahir would inaugurate it. "Our target is to collect 50 lakh signatures and hand it over to government."

When asked about Bangaru Laxman's conviction for taking bribe over a decade ago, Javdekar said that he would not comment on it as it was court's judgment. "Mr Laxman will appeal in the high court."

He said that Congress should not try to sermonize BJP over Laxman. "They should not forget what is happening in their party. Every month a mega scam is surfacing. The party is scared that its public image has gone for a toss and hence is trying to divert the attention of people through the Laxman case," he charged.

The BJP leader also slammed CBI and indirectly alleged that it was partial. "I would be happy if CBI shows the same zeal in dealing with 2G and other big scams that involve Congress bigwigs."

MP Hansraj Ahir, BJP leaders Girish Vyas and Sudhakar Kohale were present at the press conference.

Source : The Times of India, April 29, 2012