Hyderabad: After nearly a week in New Delhi, BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao returned to the city on Friday after a flurry of meetings with like-minded regional and national party leaders, and other organisations, and decided to work from his national party office for one week each month beginning in January.
During meetings with party MPs and farmers' leaders, the CM discussed his plans and said he would in the national capital for two weeks a month after the Assembly's Budget session in March, according to party sources. Because the Telangana Assembly and Lok Sabha elections are five months apart, in December 2023 and April 2024, the CM plans to shuttle between Hyderabad and Delhi to focus on both elections.
During his meetings in Delhi, the CM promised to consider bringing back the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for Telangana government employees in place of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), and that the BRS's national policy on implementing OPS in all states would be announced soon.
It is believed that the Congress’ promise of bringing back the OPS in Himachal Pradesh led to the party’s victory there.
Leaders of National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS), the umbrella organisation of employees unions of all states, that is agitating for the OPS, met the CM in New Delhi and sought his support.
The delegation that met with the CM included NMOPS secretary-general G. Sthitaprajna, Telangana CPS Employees Union general secretary K. Srikanth, treasurer Naresh Goud, and others. They informed the CM that approximately 1.7 lakh state government employees in Telangana who were recruited after 2004 were covered by the CPS, and urged him to reinstate OPS.
They told the CM that nearly 84 lakh employees across the country were suffering as the CPS lacked social security for pensioners, and that the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha had decided to abolish CPS in states ruled by them and restore the OPS.
On his part, the CM stated that BRS would announce a national policy on the issue soon after examining CPS in all states and the steps required to restore OPS.
Earlier, Rao visited the party's office in the national capital for the first time on Friday, following its inauguration on Wednesday, and met with party MPs and leaders of farmers' and employees' associations from various states to discuss the party's plans to expand into other states. Following the meeting, the CM flew back to Hyderabad on a special flight on Friday evening.
