Days after the Ashok Gehlot government restored the old pension scheme in Rajasthan, the Congress on Friday demanded this for the entire country.

Fulfilling a long-standing demand, Gehlot announced in the budget placed on Wednesday that the old pension scheme was being restored for employees appointed on and after January 1, 2004. The Congress chief minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, said that after 2004, contributory pension was introduced under the National Pension Scheme but this had created a sense of insecurity.

Arguing that the Congress-run state governments were emerging as a beacon of pro-people governance, party general secretary Ajay Maken said on Friday: “Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot… in his budget speech conceded a major demand of the government employees by restoring the old pension scheme. He has shown the way to other states on how to take pro-people decisions.”

Recalling that the Vajpayee establishment had decided that government employees joining after January 1, 2004, would be covered under a new pension scheme based on market investments, Maken said: “The governments abdicated their responsibility. The employees demanded restoration of the old pension scheme that the Congress government had introduced. This was not the first time a BJP government had attacked the interests of government employees. The Vajpayee government didn’t set up the Sixth Pay Commission. The Manmohan Singh government did and now the Modi government has abolished the practice.”

Maken said the Rajasthan government had also brought an urban employment guarantee scheme on the lines of the MGNREGA to address the acute unemployment problem in cities. Under this scheme, there will be a legal guarantee for employment for 100 days a year to every job seeker in urban areas.