Immediate steps will be taken by all affiliate to Confederation of Central Government of Employees to circulate the petition to the Prime Minister on PFRDA bill. During this month copy of the petition will be handed over to each member to obtain his signature as also his family members and friends.
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Stop the New Pensions Scheme and extend the statutory
defined benefit pension to all CGEs irrespective of the date of
recruitment.

The present defined benefit scheme of pension was introduced replacing the then existing contributory system. As part of the neo liberal
economic policies, the Government decided to reconvert the same into
contributory and make the fund available for the stock market
operations. It is the vagaries of the stock market which will
determine the pension returns from this fund. Before the introduction
of the PFRDA bill, the Government had set up a committee under the
chairmanship of Shri Bhattacharya, Chief Secretary of the State of
Karnataka. The bill has been drafted and presented to the Parliament
disregarding even the recommendation of the said committee to the
effect that the Govt. should consider introducing a hybrid system by
which the employees will have a defined benefit, if they choose to be
satisfied with the said return and can opt for a higher return through
stock exchange investments. The Bill could not be passed in the
Parliament as the Left Parties took the principled position that they
would not support a proposal detrimental to the interest of the
employees. Despite the non passage of the bill and the consequent
absence of a valid law to support the Pension Regulatory authority,
the Govt. has converted the existing pension scheme into a
contributory one and invested a percentage of the fund so generated
from the employees contribution in the Stock market,

Pension is earned by an employee by rendering service and therefore
there is no requirement of any payment by the employee for earning
pension. This statutory right of the employee is enforceable through
courts. The Supreme Court has declared pension as one of the
fundamental rights. The government should therefore retrace from its
avowed position, which is detrimental to the interest of the employees
and ensure that the employees recruited after 1.1.2004 is covered by
the existing statutory defined benefit scheme. The bill which was
earlier introduced in the Parliament got lapsed an d could not be
passed for want of a majority as the left parties were opposed to the
same. The Govt. has now sought and obtained the support of BJP and
other allies of the NDA. The Bill was reintroduced in the Parliament
in the last session. The introduction itself was opposed by Com.
Basudeb Acharya, M.P. and leader of the CPIM in the parliament. The
bill's introduction has to be through voting. With the support of BJP
and other parties the bill has now been introduced and would come up
for consideration at the next session of the Parliament