Congress to bring back old pension scheme if it wins 2023 MP polls: Nath

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath said the old pension scheme for government employees will be brought back if his party is elected to power in the state in the 2023 Assembly polls.

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Sunday said the old pension scheme for government employees will be brought back if his party is elected to power in the state in the 2023 Assembly polls.

The old pension scheme for government employees was discontinued nationwide from April 1, 2004 and was replaced by the new National Pension Scheme (NPS).

He was speaking at an event of the Madhya Pradesh Shikshak Congress.

"If a Congress government is formed in Madhya Pradesh in 2023, the old pension scheme for government employees will be implemented like how other states ruled by our party have done," Nath said.

Hitting back, MP Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel told PTI the Congress was now non-existent and people were never going to vote for it again.

"The Congress cheated people and farmers by failing to fulfill promises of loan waiver, regularization of jobs of daily wagers, providing unemployment allowance etc. Now people know the truth about the Congress and are never going to vote for it again," Patel said.

In February, the Congress government under Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan had announced in the annual budget about the resumption of the old pension scheme for over three lakh government employees who were appointed on or after January 1, 2004.