Nagaland govt employees hit streets, demand restoration of old pension scheme

A large number of government employees in Nagaland took to the streets on Friday, 16 February, demanding scrapping of the ‘new pension scheme’ and restoration of the earlier system.

State government employees recruited after 2010, the year the new pension scheme was implemented, converged at the civil secretariat junction under the aegis of the Nagaland National Pension System Government Service Employees’ Forum (NNPSGSEF).

NNPSGSEF president Moanungsang said the “peaceful dharna” was held to stand in solidarity with the “national strike” organised by the All India State Government Employees Federation (AISGEF).

He said the forum had submitted a representation to the state government in September 2023, but “there has been no response”.

NNPSGSEF said the old pension scheme provided social security to employees with guaranteed life-time reasonable pension.

However, the new scheme “does not provide social security and… guarantees lower pension per month to long-surviving pensioners”, it claimed.