Pune (Voice News Service): By the initiative of Former MP of Rajya Sabha and Padma Shri Awarded Eye Surgeon, Dr. Vikas Mahatme, the innovative idea of One Mission – Pension for All’ has been proposed by the committee formed for this purpose. Just like government employees, farmers, agricultural laborers, pastoralists,construction workers, workers in unorganized sectors and artisans, fishermen, contract workers, maids, sweepers, auto-
rickshaw drivers, taxi / truck drivers, pavement hawkers, tea vendors, Press Reporter, security guards, vegetable and fruit vendors, small shopkeepers etc also contribute to the nation building. For all such people, One Mission – Pension for All concept is launched.
Recently, there were agitations for One Mission – Old Pension”. Retired Government employees want old pension instead of new pension. It means they are getting pension; they desire a hike in it. They claim that they have worked for the government for so many years, they have served people of the nation and consequently they have served the Nation; hence they must get pension. On the other hand, the farmer, field
laborer who works very hard, grows crops, provides food for the nation; without which we wouldn’t survive – is also serving the Nation. Hence giving him pension after 60 years of age should be our prime aim. Also, people working in unorganized sectors like laborers, tea vendors, small shop owners, pastoralists etc also serve the nation and should receive pension after the age of 60 years.
If we consider 60 as the age of retirement for government servants & officers, they will receive pension after retirement and on top of it they can find a suitable job as well. On the contrary, farmers and laborers perform hard manual work almost 10 to 12 hours a day and after the age of 60 years, they will hardly have any strength to work further; but they still work as there is no other alternative; neither do they get pension.
More than anyone else, these people deserve to get a pension – we must understand. If we are thinking about a hike in the pension of government servants or about implementing OPS, we need to prioritize giving pension to unorganized sector.
They also have served the nation hence we must consider their case before increasing the pension of the government servants. Maharashtra’s budget is Rs 4 lakh crores. Out of this, nearly 1 lakh 55 thousand crores go to salary and pension of government employees. That means 1.55 lakh crore for 2 percent of the population while the remaining 245 thousand crores are spent for 98 percent people including the families of government employees. The government’s expenditure on employees is already very high. There is one more thing that needs to be considered – suppose there is a deficit of say Rs.10,000 crores in the 4 lakh crore budget – which may be due to less collection of taxes – then the total budget comes to 3,90,000 crores. Let anything happen to the revenue collection of the government but the pension remains unaffected. What gets compromised are the developmental schemes like
educational scheme, health Service or schemes beneficial for the society.
Pension remains untouched, unaffected because there is a provision for pension in the ‘Law’! Even during Corona, there was a shortfall of thousands of crores in the budget but it did not happen that even 1 month’s pension was not received. So, all the social welfare schemes for example school education on which 3000 crores are spent – will get a setback but the pension must be paid. It was decided to implement the old pension scheme in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan. This decision is taken only keeping an eye on the vote bank. Can you imagine that in 1990-91 Central Government’s expenditure for pension was 3272 crores while in 2020 it was 1,
90, 836 crores; That is 58 times more! Do we really want this? Now let’s see who pays for this pension money? Of course, the taxpayers. Taxpayers doesn’t merely mean Income Taxpayers but all those who are paying taxes even while shopping. For example, a specially – abled person who is earning Rs 5000 in a month, buys a toothpaste, he pays the GST on it; it means he is also a taxpayer. And all this tax money is being used to pay those who are getting the pension.
Therefore, the pension of the government employees may be increased; but before that, consider giving a pension first to those who are not receiving anything. For Pension, priority must be given to the Farmers, Agricultural Laborers, Ppastoralists, Construction workers, Unorganized Laborers, Artisans, Fishermen, Contract Laborers, Maids, Sweepers, Auto rickshaw Drivers, Taxi/Truck Drivers, Pavement Hawkers, Tea-vendors, Press Reporters, Security Guards, Vegetable- Fruit Vendors, Petty Shopkeepers and All those who have contributed to the country’s service. First, they should get pension and then the increase in pension of government employees should be considered.
