Bring back old pension scheme: Cong

Bhopal: Congress MLAs on Tuesday walked out of the House after their Call Attention Motion on restoration of old pension scheme wasn’t taken up for discussion.
After Rajasthan, the Congress government in Chhattisgarh last week announced restoration of the old pension scheme and Congress is demanding the same in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana. The new pension scheme was implemented by the Atal Behari Vajpayee government on April 1, 2004.
In the present scheme, 10% of basic pay and DA is deducted as voluntary contribution towards the pension scheme. There was no such provision before April 1, 2004.
Soon as Zero Hour started on Tuesday, former Congress minister P C Sharma told the Speaker, “I had a Zero Hour notice which has not been included.” Senior Congress MLA Sajjan Singh Verma said, “All MLAs have asked for discussion of the old pension scheme in Zero Hour and through Call Attention Motion. It is a serious issue and must be discussed.”
Speaker Girish Gautam said, “You speak about this separately.” Senior Congress MLAs Dr Govind Singh, Sharma and Verma persisted that the pension scheme involves lakhs of families and deserved discussion. But the Speaker insisted that the Opposition MLAs speak on it later and separately.
Former minister Kamleshwar Patel argued, “Everyone wants a discussion on the subject because we all want that the old pension order be restored in MP. A discussion is necessary.” However, Gautam went about completing the business of the House.
Former Speaker and Congress MLA Narayan Prajapati said, “We have submitted a notification asking for a Call Attention Motion on the old pension scheme. When will it be discussed?” Congress MLA Sohanlal Valmik argued, “After working for 30 years, should an employee starve to death? It is an issue concerning the life security of employees. The old pension should be restored in MP.”
Sharma told reporters outside the House: “We are talking about the pension of state employees before 2004. The BJP government stopped that pension while Congress governments have restored the same. We wanted a discussion and gave Zero Hour notice, and asked for Call Attention Motion. But we were not given the discussion when it involves the interests of all state government employees.”