Shimla, Mar 31 (PTI) The Congress will implement the old pension scheme and regularise outsourced employees if it returns to power in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections later this year, senior party leader Rajeev Shukla said on Thursday.
Congress Working Committee member and the incharge of the Himachal Pradesh affairs at the AICC Rajeev Shukla claimed that government employees in the state are fed up with policies of the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government.
The Congress high command has decided to implement the old pension scheme if it comes to power in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, he added.
Further, outsourced employees will be regularised, he said. Shukla, accompanied by Leader of Opposition in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Mukesh Agnihotri and state Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathour, said the old pension scheme has already been implemented by the Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Shukla also brushed aside the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a major challenger in the elections. The contest will be between the Congress and the BJP, he said, adding AAP will not able to make any impact.
The Congress leader said AAP performed well in Punjab, where it has been trying its luck there for the past several years. AAP failed to win even a single seat in UP and Uttarakhand, he added.
Shukla said the Congress will emerge victorious in the Assembly elections.
Earlier in the day, the Congress held a demonstration outside the Shimla deputy commissioner’s office against the hike in fuel prices.
The state government employees under the banner of New Pension Scheme Karamchari Mahasangh (NPSKM) had held a protest outside the Himachal Pradesh Assembly during the Budget session on March 3, demanding the implementation of the old pension scheme.
The old pension scheme for government employees was discontinued in the country from April 1, 2004.
The NPSKM representatives demanded that the state government should restore the old pension scheme in which the entire amount of pension was given by the government.
According to the new scheme, employees contribute 10 per cent of their salary for pension while the state government contributes 14 per cent, the NPSKM representatives had added. PTI RDK RDK
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