Congress MLA Mevani pushes for Old Pension Scheme in state

Speaking during the budgetary demand discussion, Mevani, an MLA from Vadgam, said that the new pension scheme, which has been implemented, is subject to conditions as it is not approved by most of the employees of Gujarat.

“In Rajasthan, the Ashok Gehlot government of the Congress party passed the law for OPS. When I spoke to an employee in the morning, he told me that after the OPS scheme was implemented, the employee, who was supposed to get Rs 2,800 after retirement, now gets 40,000. Therefore, I request the government that in the interest of the employees of Gujarat, please implement the OPS scheme,” he stated.

“The state government has identified places where taxes should be levied. But due to legal entanglements, an amount of nearly Rs 60,000 crore is stuck. I request the state government to set up specialized court so that the state government can recover this amount,” he added.

“The PMKUSUM scheme of the New and Renewable Energy Department of the central government has two components — KUSUM B and KUSUM C. There is a provision to install a solar pumping system under KUSUM B. However, not only in Gujarat, but in the entire country, 99.99 per cent of the solar controllers are such that they can run the motor for drawing water for a maximum of only 150 days in a year. But due to India’s geographical location, we can use solar energy for 320 days. In Rajasthan, our the Gehlot government installed 1,000 USPC solar controllers. A farmer in Rajasthan informed me that after using this technology he raised Rs 6 lakh from six acres of land. To further learn about this, Prime Minister Narendrabhai (Modi) sent the Collector of Bharatpur, Rajasthan there for a month as he wanted to talk about it on his radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’. After praised from the PM, the central government supported it under its KUSUM Yojana,” he added.

Further accusing state’s officials for “intentionally” excluding the technology from the tenders, Mevani said, “Our officers have intentionally not included this technology in the tender. That is why I demand that from now on, the option of USPC be put before the farmers. Studies in Rajasthan and other states, where this technology has been installed, show that the monthly income of a farmer increases from Rs 6,000 to Rs 20,000. If this is done, 10 lakh people can get employment in the agricultural sector of the state.”