CM Siddaramaiah lashes out at MP Pratap Simha

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lashing out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pratap Simha said that the latter “lacks political maturity”.

While talking to the media, the Karnataka chief Minister said, “He (Pratap Simha) says that he is responsible for the construction of Bengaluru roads. Is he the MP for the Bengaluru roads?”

“I have never spoken to opposition parties in my political life and never have visited their houses while in power. If I happened to come across them I will only talk courteously, but won’t discuss politics,” he added.

In response to the allegation made by MP Pratap Simha that the Congress and the BJP had joined hands, the CM said, “If they (BJP) know who has joined hands, let them come out with information”.

Responding to the MP’s statement regarding conducting an investigation into the PayCM allegation made by Congress, the Chief Minister said, “Did they ask us to carry out an investigation? It is up to us to decide when and by whom the investigation should be carried out.”

Meanwhile, CM Siddaramaiah assured that discussion will be held regarding the implementation of the old pension scheme in the cabinet and a decision will be taken to announce it in the budget.

He was speaking to the delegation of office bearers of the NPS employees’ union that met him and appealed to him regarding the cancellation of the New Pension Scheme.

The CM said that the employees should work efficiently to implement the guarantee schemes of the government, and said that they should sincerely work to reach the benefits of the government programs to the people.

Former MLC VS Ugrappa who spoke on the occasion informed that about 2.98 lakh employees are covered under NPS. The pension amount is deposited in National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL). This amount can be deposited in General Provident Fund (GPF) which can be made available at the time of retirement.

He explained that the government should decide to drop the disciplinary action taken against those who took part in the ‘Vote for OPS’ campaign.
“NPS has been cancelled in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, it should also be cancelled in Karnataka and the old pension scheme should be implemented. By cancelling NPS, a total of Rs 19,000 crores is available under the scheme which can be used for development programs of the government. Rs 9000 crores of employees’ shares can be converted to GPF and Rs 10,000 crores of government shares can be used for development programs”, Karnataka State NPS employees’ union president Shantaram Teja said during the meeting.

(With ANI inputs)