HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is said to have directed party leaders to launch a hard-hitting strategic attack against the BJP in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.
He has given a clear indication to the party with his scathing attacks on the BJP by raising disinvestments of central public sector units, and its policies on farmers and workers, in the Parliamentary Party and Legislature Party meeting. Party leaders are carrying it forward.
On Saturday, they attacked the BJP-led government at the Centre on the new pension scheme, which employees see as being detrimental to their interests. While the contributions during the employee’s service is seen as being high, the returns are low.
The new pension scheme, which works on a defined contribution basis, has been causing heartburn for Central government and CPUS employee. Already, trade unions are agitating against it.
Sources close to the party disclosed that the TRS chief instructed ministers and senior leaders to highlight the deficiencies of the scheme so that the people could know the ground realities.
He instructed the party to highlight that under the new pension scheme an employee, who retires after serving 30 years in Central government institutions, would get a meagre amount of `1,250 which is less than the pension paid by the state government to the elderly and physically challenged. The state government is giving `2,016 monthly pension to aged persons and `3,016 to the physically challenged.
The party on Saturday hit out at the Centre for diverting `54,000 crore contributed by the employees under the scheme. The TRS charged the Centre with double-standards with regard to the new pension scheme, stating that the BJP which had opposed it when it was in the Opposition was now squeezing the employees and forcing the retired employees to suffer.
The party is explaining to the people that Union minister Prakash Javadekar moved a petition before the Supreme Court when he was in the Opposition and the apex court had ordered the Centre to fix `3,000 as minimum monthly pension to retired employees. After coming to power, the BJP placed the Supreme Court orders in cold storage.
As Greater Hyderabad has a considerable number of Central government and PSU employees, the party leaders felt that Rao's strategy of hitting the Centre on the new pension scheme would brighten the ruling party’s winning chances in the GHMC polls.
