INTUC national vice-president and former Rajya Sabha member Dr Ramachandra Khuntia has urged the Central Government to hike the pension amount to minimum Rs 3,000 per month under the EPF scheme.

In a letter to Prime Minister Modi, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Khuntia drew their attention to the miserable condition of 65 lakh pensioners in India, including 1.62 lakh from Odisha, who are getting a very meager amount under the EPF scheme.

Khuntia told that the pension scheme was started at the time of the Congress Government at the Centre in 1995 which covers around 6 crore EPF contributors in the country at present. Lakhs of employees and workers working in public and private sectors are getting Rs 600 to Rs 3,000 per month as pension, although the decision of the Government was to fix Rs 1,000 as minimum at that time.

He said many pensioners are even getting less than Rs 1,000 per month and asked how these people would manage with such a low pension.

Khuntia referred to the Koshiyary Committee report which had recommended for payment of Rs 3,000 per month as minimum pension , besides that of a judgement of the Supreme Court asking for paying higher pension on actual salary. Khuntia said now the Government of India has floated pension scheme for all unorganized workers fixing the pension at Rs 3,000 per month.

“The EPF has no fund deficit. It has corpus fund of more than Rs 13 lakh crore and Rs 4,000 crore as unclaimed fund. In 2014, around Rs 2,300 crore was required to give Rs 2,000 as minimum pension to all EPF pension holders,” said Khuntia, urging the Central Government to provide budgetary support for the scheme so that the pension amount could be hiked.

He also urged for inclusion of all EPF beneficiaries in the free healthcare scheme like the Ayushman Bharat.