Roorkee: Teachers of Haridwar district took out a protest rally on Sunday demanding scrapping of the national pension scheme (NPS), which they claim is completely against their interests. The protesters, numbering about 1,000, also demanded that the state government re-introduce the old pension scheme (OPS).Anil Sharma, patron of Uttarakhand Shikshak Mahasangh Haridwar (USMH), said all six teachers' associations of the district supported the protest rally. “NPS is a market-linked scheme (share market-based) scheme. It is risk-based scheme offered by the government. A teacher, after retirement, wishes to live a life on risk free earning,” said Anil Sharma.According to Sharma, the state government has replaced OPS with NPS in October 2005. Under the provisions of the new pension scheme, a sum of money will be deducted every month from the salary of teachers and an equal amount will be given by government to create a head for the pension. The final sum of money (contributed by teachers and the state government) will be handled by national securities depository limited (NSDL), which invests this money in the share market.Teachers alleged that under the NPS they would only get a sum Rs 1,500 to 2,000 per month in the name of pension. “Under the OPS, each teacher gets around Rs 30,000 pension after retirement. How can we survive in our old days without sufficient money,” said Ashok Chauhan, a primary teacher from Bahadrabad.USMH also gave a memorandum to the local administration to be forwarded to the government for due action, said Manjit Singh Gill, a teacher.

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