What's behind massive protest by Gujarat govt staff; why BJP is unfazed in election year
A large number of state government employees of Gujarat took to the streets on Monday (May 9) in Gandhinagar to protest against the administration’s inaction over their long-standing demands. Primarily, the employees demanded the restoration of the old pension scheme, to abolish the fixed pay arrangement (which had even been struck down by the Gujarat high court) and implement the 7th pay commission recommendations.
Despite the fact the BJP will have to face the electorate in the upcoming state elections later this year, the ruling party seems unperturbed, said news reports. There are over 7 lakh state government employees in the state.
Nearly 72 associations of different cadres such as revenue officials, panchayat employees, health employees, employees of industrial training institutes, employees of regional transport offices, and teachers had participated in the protest held at Satyagraha Chhavni. It was organised by the National Old Pension Restoration United Front (NOPRUF) and the Gujarat State United Front.
Old Pension Scheme (OPS) vs the New Pension Scheme (NPS)
One of the key demands of the demonstrators is for the restoration of the OPS. According to government employees, in the OPS, an employee and his or her family get 50 per cent of his or her last salary as pension. And that pension was being regularly upgraded as per the dearness regularly.
In the NPS, however, the government removes 10 per cent of General Provident Fund (GPF) money from the employee’s salary every month, even as it contributes the same amount and eventually deposits it in the NPS Trust (for the employee). On retirement, the employee has to purchase a pension product from that money from three of the entities listed out by the government.
A newspaper report quoted the spokesperson of NOPRUF as saying that the pension amount is very limited, as compared to the one under OPS. Moreover, while the NPS amount remains fixed not taking inflation into account, OPS gets revised regularly as per the rate of inflation. Also, the Gujarat government has not brought in the change(which the central government follows) to provide pension for the family of the employee who dies during his service.
Also read: Focus on tribals and minorities: How Congress plans to take on BJP in Gujarat
The protesters also wanted the government to follow the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission and pay them allowances as mentioned by the commission.
Abolition of fixed-wage policy
The protestors also want the fixed-wage policy which was introduced in 2006 to be done away with. Under this policy, government employees get hired in various position at a fixed salary for a period of five years. They get regularised as state government employees after five years but they are denied any increments in their salary during this period.
In fact, the Gujarat High Court while hearing a PIL had cancelled the policy in January 2012. However, the issue remains unresolved as the government challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court.
According to the report in The Indian Express, the state government employee association have not issued a call to vote against the BJP as yet. But the government employee representatives felt that they are a significant number to influence the election in which 50-60 seats in Gujarat are decided by the margin of around 5,000-10,000 votes.
However, a BJP functionary told the newspaper that such protests do not have an impact on the elections at all. It is the BJP’s Hindutva agenda that always prevails in the end and that the government employees were resorting to arm-twisting tactics before the election so that their demands can be met.
