Thiruvananthapuram: The Doctors Association of Regional Cancer Centre has urged the State Government to institute a scientific pension scheme or direct the RCC to adopt the National Pension Scheme than experiment with the "suicidal" in-house scheme, similar to the dysfunctional Cancer Care for Life.
The main demand is the implementation of the NPS tier I scheme, sanctioned by the State Government in November 2015 to those who joined service in 2013, and others who have opted out of the RCC pension scheme, fearing "it may become unviable in eight to 10 years".
In their petition to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Health Minister K.K. Shylaja, the employees pointed out that '34 crore allotted by the previous Government and '12 crore announced recently might be used up in funding the "skewed" RCC pension scheme, benefiting only a section of employees on the verge of retirement. Already a portion of the corpus has been disbursed to pensioners.
Additional Chief Secretary K M Abraham, also a chartered financial analyst, has cautioned that the RCC pension scheme might end up like the unsustainable KSRTC pension scheme. He recommended resubmitting the scheme for approval after modifying with the help of a professional agency.
The current RCC pension scheme has been structured by in-house experts, without the assistance of a certified actuary. The November 2015 State Government order permits the RCC to run two pension schemes- RCC's pension scheme and the NPS. RCC's pension scheme pertains to employees in permanent service between 2011 and 2013. The pension contribution is 10 per cent of the basic pay plus DA by the employee and 5 per cent by the RCC. Some 420 out of the nearly 650 employees were willing to join the scheme.
But, a certified actuary, approached by the doctors association, found the scheme unviable because benefits promised to employees cannot be serviced with the available resources to the RCC pension scheme.
The alternative: National Pension Scheme Tier I, sanctioned by the State Government. About 200 staffers, on permanent rolls between 2011 and 2013, had expressed their willingness to join the scheme. In all 213 employees, who had joined the service post-2013, also were willing to join. The monthly contribution to the pension fund is 10 percent of basic salary plus DA and an equal share by the RCC.
However, after announcing joining options (last date July 23 this year), the Controller of Finance at RCC informed the doctors association on July 25 that the NPS could not be implemented.
Complainants, 70 per cent of whom are doctors, have urged the Government to direct the RCC to start the NPS forthwith or extend a Government guarantee to the RCC pension scheme, undertaking to set off future monetary loss to pensioners.
