Dr.Shri.N.Kanniah, after addressing the gathering said that, Thousands of Chennai Division Railway Employees participated in the Demonstration.
Scrapping of New Pension Scheme :
In 2004, the Government of India modified the Old Pension Scheme and introduced a New Pension Scheme, which was detrimental to the Railway Employees and other Central Government Employees. Opposing the NPS Scheme, Thousands of Employees of Chennai Division led by Dr.Shri.N.Kanniah, President/AIRF and General Secretary/SRMU, gathered enmass and participated in the Demonstration at the Divisional Office Campus of DRM/Chennai, Southern Railway, today, insisting their demands.
New Pension Scheme was introduced with effect from 01-04-2004 for the Central Government employees and railway employees. Under this Scheme, the employees shall contribute 10% of their wages and government shall contribute 10% of their wages monthly. A portion of the corpus would be paid back to the employees at the time of their retirement along with pension. Whereas, there is no guarantee about the quantum of pension one will receive. Although 19 years have elapsed, since the introduction of the scheme, today employees do not know, what would be the pension amount, they would be receiving, when he or she retires. This situation should be changed and a Guaranteed Pension and family pension to the spouse of the deceased employee, should be introduced.
The Railway Employees, who joined prior to 2004, get 50% of last drawn salary as Pension, at the time of their retirement. This was changed after 2004 as New Pension Scheme. For those employees, who joined after 2004 and retire now, the amount of pension that they get in the NPS, is very meager.
Difference between Old Pension Scheme and New Pension Scheme:
A Track Maintainer, whose Basic Pay of Rs.21,000/-, who contributes Rs.2,100/- as his own share, when he retires now, gets not even an amount of Rs.1,800/-, as Pension in the NPS. Whereas, he gets Rs.15,000/- in Old Pension Scheme. Also, he will get Rs.4 Lakhs as his settlement amount in New Pension Scheme. Whereas, he will get Rs.8 Lakhs
as his settlement amount in Old Pension Scheme.
Similarly, a Loco Pilot, whose Basic Pay of Rs.42,300/- and who contributes Rs.4,230/- as his own share, when he retires now, gets not even an amount of Rs.3,500/-, as Pension in the NPS. Whereas, he gets Rs.35,000/- in Old Pension Scheme. He will get Rs.11 Lakhs as his settlement amount in New Pension Scheme. Whereas, he will get Rs.35 Lakhs as his settlement amount in Old Pension Scheme.
