&w=3840&q=100)
Only 1.37% of eligible central govt employees opted for UPS as of July 20
The government has extended the deadline for opting into the scheme to September 2025 from the earlier cut-off date of 30 June 2025.
Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the UPS has been introduced as an option under the National Pension System (NPS) for central government employees currently covered under NPS, with the objective of providing assured payouts.
In August 2024, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said, 'UPS is being implemented by the Central Government, benefiting ~23 lakh Central Government employees.'
'These eligible subscribers are those central government employees who have either superannuated, deceased, or retired under Fundamental Rule 56(j) on or before 31 March 2025, after completing ten years or more of qualifying service under NPS,' said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Sitharaman further stated that as on 20 July 2025, 7,253 claims had been received, out of which 4,978 had been processed for payment of benefits under UPS.
The UPS guarantees employees 50 per cent of their average basic pay over the last 12 months before retirement as pension, provided they have completed a minimum qualifying service of 25 years. This is in contrast to the market-linked returns under the NPS.
According to the scheme approved by the Union Cabinet, the pension will be proportionate for a lesser service period of up to a minimum of 10 years.
The scheme has been introduced to address concerns raised by government employees over the NPS, which has been in effect since 1 January 2004. The government has also extended to UPS the same tax benefits available under the Income-tax Act, 1961, for NPS.
Under the earlier Old Pension Scheme (OPS), employees were not required to contribute towards their pension. However, they contributed to the General Provident Fund (GPF), the accumulated amount of which—along with interest—was paid to the employee at the time of retirement.
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Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Over 100K votes ‘stolen': Rahul; EC demands signed declaration
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday made a presentation that he claimed proved there were 100,250 'stolen' votes in the Mahadevapura assembly segment of Bangalore (Central) Parliamentary constituency that helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the seat in 2024, accusing the Election Commission of India of 'colluding' with the ruling party. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi addresses a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo) His presentation, which also included names of the voters involved, prompted an immediate reaction from the Election Commission, which asked him to send a signed declaration and oath to the effect. Claiming that a team of 40 people spent six months going through the physical electoral rolls given by the Commission that were seven feet thick in all, and presented in a non machine-readable format, Gandhi provided a break-up of the 'stolen' votes: 11, 965 duplicate voters, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid address, 10,452 voters who were part of groups of 60 or 70 voters with the same address; 4,132 voters with invalid photos; and 3, 692 voters who used Form 6. The last is primarily meant for new and first-time voters who do not find their names on the rolls, but Gandhi claimed many of those using this form were 95, 96, and 98 years old. In 2024, the BJP won the Bangalore Central seat by 32,707 votes. Gandhi claimed that while in all other assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress maintained a lead, it lost the seat as the BJP managed a lead of 114,000 votes in Mahadevapura segment. Gandhi lashed out at the apex poll body and said, 'EC was colluding with the BJP to steal elections. In one assembly segment, 100,250-vote theft took place. This is the reason why EC doesn't give us data machine-readable data.' The presentation came ahead of the Congress' rally on the issue in Karnataka. Gandhi claimed that the BJP won the 2024 election narrowly. The Prime Minister is the PM with a slender majority and needed to 'steal' only 25 seats to stay in power, he added. The BJP won 240 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to the opposition INDIA bloc's 234; it formed the government with the support of its allies such as the Janata Dal (United), Telugu Desam Party, and Shiv Sena. While his press conference was on, the chief electoral officer in Karnataka sent a letter to Gandhi and sought his signed declaration and oath on the data. Gandhi retorted, 'I am a politician. What I say to people is my word. Take it as an oath. EC is not denying the data. They are saying, will you say this under oath.' Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, says, 'If any person makes in connection with— (a) the preparation, revision or correction of an electoral roll, or (b) the inclusion or exclusion of any entry in or from an electoral roll, a statement or declaration in writing which is false and which he either knows or believes to be false or does not believe to be true, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.' The BJP hit out at Gandhi, accusing him of making 'irresponsible and shameless comments' and attacking the constitutional institutions under a larger conspiracy against India's democracy and Constitution. 'The ideologically hollow Congress party is systematically attacking constitutional institutions. It cannot be ruled out that there is a larger conspiracy against India's democracy and Constitution behind this calculated deceit,' Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in a post on X. Former Union minister and senior BJP lawmaker Ravi Shankar Prasad said the former Congress chief has crossed all limits of 'shamelessness' by calling EC a fraud. 'He is making embarrassing comments against a constitutional body. We condemn it. This is Rahul Gandhi's anger as the public of the nation does not vote for him,' he told reporters. 'Rahul Gandhi has crossed all limits of Modi has been winning elections since 2014, and he claims that the results were fraudulent. What do you mean by it? You are disrespecting the public of the nation.' In the course of a 72-minute presentation, Gandhi claimed his party's analysis had unearthed four ways in which votes were being stolen. One, he claimed, there were people who were enrolled in multiple booths. In Mahadevapura, according to his presentation, a man named Gurkeerat Singh Dang was enrolled in four different polling booths. Gandhi claimed there were similar instances in other constituencies in the state and in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Two, Gandhi claimed, people used fake addresses. His presentation highlighted 40,000 cases where he said fake addresses were given: either the house number did not exist or the house number is not given at all. Three, he claimed, there were too many voters living in the same house. His presentation showed that in booth number 470, 80 people lived in house number 45 and in booth 366, 46 voters shared same address in a house numbered 791. '68 voters were in a brewery: 'House no.153 beer club',' Gandhi quipped. Finally, he claimed, there was a misuse of Form 6. Soon after Gandhi's allegations, the chief electoral officers (CEOs) of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Haryana asked the Congress leader to share names of electors he claimed were 'wrong' in the voters' list along with a signed declaration for poll authorities to initiate 'necessary proceedings' in the matter. The Karnataka CEO in a letter to Gandhi said: 'You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed declaration/oath under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated.' In largely similar worded letters, the Maharashtra and Haryana CEOs told Gandhi that his party did not file any appeal or second appeal before poll authorities claiming flaws in the voters' list. Responding to Gandhi's claim about duplicate voter entries across states, the CEO of Uttar Pradesh said that names flagged by the Congress leader were not found in the state's electoral rolls. '...we searched for the names of Aditya Srivastava and Vishal Singh on the CEO said in a statement, adding that while both names appear in the Mahadevpura assembly seat of Bangalore Urban, 'the names of the above voters are not mentioned in Legislative Assembly 173 Lucknow East and Legislative Assembly 390 Varanasi Cantt of Uttar Pradesh.' The Congress' claims are set to escalate the tussle between the Opposition and EC amid the controversy surrounding the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter list in poll-bound Bihar. The Congress leader hinted that the party might take the issue to the Supreme Court. He also threatened that EC officials will not be spared if the Opposition comes to power. 'We are saying, if the EC now doesn't give us electronic voter data of last 10-15 years, they are partaking in the crime.' 'I think judiciary needs to get involved with this,' Gandhi added. Condemning Gandhi's remarks, BJP lawmaker Sambit Patra accused him of 'selective outrage' over his recent allegations against EC. 'Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party never did any press conference on those states where they won the public of the nation is seeing this selective the Election Commission of India is compromised, as he says, then how can they celebrate their victory on 99 seats in the Lok Sabha is the peak of Rahul Gandhi's frustration,' Patra told reporters. BJP MP from Bangalore Central PC Mohan termed Gandhi's allegations 'just another drama'. 'Rahul Gandhi drops an atom bomb of allegations, but still can't produce a single explosive proof. If 100,250 votes were stolen in Mahadevapura, why wasn't a case filed in court within 45 days instead of holding a press conference one year later?' he said on X. (With inputs from Vrinda Tulsian and Smriti Kak Ramachandran)
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Lone candidate in fray? SC weighs NOTA option
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine a proposal to make 'none of the above (NOTA)' choice available to voters even when a single candidate is in the fray to enable them to express their approval of him/her, and countermand the elections if NOTA votes exceed votes polled by the candidate. Despite Centre and EC terming NOTA, put in place based on SC's 2013 judgment, a failed idea for the poor response it received from voters, a bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N K Singh said, "It is an interesting question. It is true that elections in India are keenly contested. But imagine a situation where the voters do not want the single candidate in the fray, who would otherwise be elected unopposed, to be their representative in the assembly or Lok Sabha?" Justice Kant added, "If there is resentment among voters against the single candidate, then the voters will come out in numbers and choose NOTA. If NOTA votes exceed the votes garnered by the single candidate in the fray, then what should be done? This may be academic, but a very interesting question which may require judicial deliberation." Attorney general R Venkataramani said it was purely a non-plausible concept in the Indian context. For EC, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi said NOTA had never impacted an election since its inception. Every winning candidate has so far got higher votes than NOTA even though some of the losing candidates had secured less than NOTA votes, he said. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 15 Most Beautiful Female Athletes in the World Click Here Undo by Taboola by Taboola However, he said EC would scrupulously conduct elections as mandated by law and the orders of the SC. Additional solicitor general S D Sanjay asked the bench what would happen if an election was countermanded because of NOTA getting more votes than the single candidate in the fray, and a similar situation emerged in the fresh election. Responding to a PIL on the issue filed by 'Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy', EC in its affidavit said candidates getting elected unopposed from a Lok Sabha constituency was very rare. Since 1991, there has been only one such instance, Dwivedi said. "Since 1971 till today, that is in the last 54 years, there have been six uncontested elections in total. In the 20 general elections since 1951, there have been only nine uncontested elections," he added. "Treating NOTA as a mandatorily contesting candidate in all direct uncontested elections does not find place in the statute and the same would require legislative amendments in the provisions of Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961," EC said.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Jhalawar shcool tragedy a negligence of govt system: Dotasra
Kota: Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra Thursday attributed the Jhalawar school tragedy last month which claimed the lives of seven children and left 21 others injured to negligence of govt system. Dotasra met five children who are still undergoing treatment at a hospital in Jhalawar. Speaking to media, Dotasra said, "Seven of our children were murdered, died due to this system's negligence and regardless of politics and party line, it is a serious question mark over all of us that our children are not safe in school even after 70 years of Independence. We should rise above party level and envisage the ways that such tragedy may not be repeated." He said the issue would be raised for discussion in the Assembly. He also criticised chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma for not visiting Jhalawar to console the bereaved families while finding time to visit Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in Kota. Dotasara urged the CM to visit Jhalawar, questioning why he could not come when he could visit 100 temples after getting a helicopter. He lamented that the chief minister does not visit without a formal request (parchi), yet he can sit with Om Birla in Kota, enjoying tea and snacks, while not having time to listen to the grievances of the children's families. He described the compensation of Rs 10 Lakh to the kin of the deceased children as inadequate. 'Compensation is 100% inadequate, visiting and speaking the victims is not even in priority list of the government, compensation and package is too big a thing for this government (to consider upon)'. The Congress party provided financial support to the affected families, offering Rs 1 lakh to the families of the deceased children and Rs 10,000 each to the injured. Dotasara also remarked that politics is a social service and those who cannot do social service should quit politics. School education minister Madan Dilawar, responding to Dotasra's statement, said if the Congress govt had properly maintained all the buildings during its time, this incident would not have occurred. He said the BJP govt has allocated funds for the repair of nearly 2,000 schools over a year-and-a-half. "The Congress government deliberately avoided any repairs or inspections of schools during its term. Congress was only interested in making money," he said. Caption: PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasara and former minister Pramod Jain Bhaya in hospital with injured children in Jhalawar Thursday. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and s ilver prices in your area.
