THE HINDU/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,
August 15, 2012
The Former Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said
that the proposed contributory pension scheme would be the beginning of
sharp cuts in the number, salaries, and pensions of State employees and
teachers.
Dr. Isaac told a press conference here on
Tuesday that the Chief Minister’s claim, articulated in an article on
the subject, was meant only to mislead the employees and teachers. The
contentions in the article were those that had been proved hollow during
a debate on the Supplementary Demands for Grants in the Assembly. There
was also no comparison between the contributory pension scheme and the
pension fund for university employees mooted by the previous LDF
government, he said.
The CPI(M) leader pointed out
that successive pay commissions arrived at salaries of employees and
teachers after factoring in the potential pension of the employees
concerned. Going by the Chief Minister’s argument that the contributory
pension scheme was being contemplated as the pension payment burden was
increasingly unbearable, it would have to be assumed that the government
would also contemplate slashing the salaries of employees. The
government should clarify whether it would cut the salaries because the
wage bill was on the rise, he said.
Pension, he said,
could not be seen as a burden but as a right of the employees for
having served the government. If the contributory pension scheme was
implemented, it would result in the pension benefits available to the
employees getting halved, he added.
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