Committee to be formed to study Unified Pension Scheme, says minister

FINANCE Minister Thangam Thennarasu said the government would constitute a committee to study the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) announced by the Government of India (GoI).

- T MURUGANANDHAM @Chennai

He said based on the committee's recommendations, the scheme would be implemented in a manner suitable to Tamil Nadu.

The minister said this while responding to a query from DMK MLA CVMP Ezhilarasan during the zero hour. Thennarasu said though the GoI has announced the UPS as an alternative to the contributory pension scheme (CPS) and the national pension scheme (NPS), it is yet to release detailed guidelines on the scheme's implementation.

He said the state committee will be formed after the guidelines are issued by GoI.

The Tamil Nadu Secretariat Association (TANSA), an association of employees in secretariat, condemned the minister's "Pongal gift", referring to the announcement.

TANSA president G Venkatesan alleged forming a committee is tantamount to diluting the decision on the long-pending demand of state government employees to revert to the old pension scheme. He blamed the DMK government for failing to deliver on its electoral promise in this regard.

He said TANSA will stage a demonstration on January 24 on finance minister's announcement on UPS besides other issues of indefinite freeze.