Lucknow Jan 20 PTI Making an important announcement Samajwadi Party SP president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said if his party comes to power in Uttar Pradesh it will restore the old pension scheme benefitting lakhs of state government employees who have been agitating for the same for long as well as the Yash Bharti awardsWith another relative of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav joining the BJP after Aparna Yadav Akhilesh Yadav took a swipe at the ruling party thanking it for ending parivarvaad dynastic politics in his partyOn coming to power the Samajwadi Party will restore the old pension scheme which will benefit the teachers employees and officers of the state government I have already held discussions with the employees and economic experts and have found out that we will be able to arrange funds for it by creating a corpus he told reporters hereWe will seek the support of the state government employees in the upcoming Assembly election on the issue of pension the SP chief saidThe leaders of the employees union have met several times and made a demand to this effect The BJP government had brought a new manual through which the employees appointed after April 2005 were denied this support and security on retirement Yadav said adding that restoring the pension scheme will be part of his partys poll manifestoThe employees have held agitations demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme They have alleged that the new pension scheme depends on the share market and therefore has uncertainty attached to itAccording to Rajya Karamchari Sanyukt Parishad president J N Tiwari the number of employees appointed after 2005 is around 10 lakh and most of them are teachersThe SP president also said his party is against privatisation and termed outsourcing a wrong practice that denies the poor and the deprived sections of the society their rightsThe rights given by the Constitution of B R Ambedkar are being snatched by outsourcing The SP is thinking about this as well wait for the manifesto he said adding that the party will release its manifesto after the BJP which has been working with a double engine for the last over four years and practising discriminationLater in a tweet the SP chief said on coming to power his party will also restore the Yash Bharti awardsThe old pension scheme and the Yash Bharti samman will be restored on the SP and its allies coming to power and Nagar Bharti awards will be given to outstanding social workers litterateurs journalists artists sportspersons and entrepreneurs professionals who create jobs Bicycle in 22 he said in the tweet in HindiInstituted in 1994 the Yash Bharti award was the highest civilian award given by the Uttar Pradesh government The recipients were awarded a letter of commendation a shawl Rs 11 lakh and a monthly pension of Rs 50000 on demand However after the process of selecting the recipients received flak from the media and activists the awards were discontinued by the Yogi Adityanath governmentWhen his views were sought on Pramod Gupta another relative of Mulayam Singh Yadav who joined the BJP on Thursday after Aparna Yadav the SP chief took a swipe at the ruling party saying it should be happy nowThe BJP should be happy about this The allegation of parivarvaad that it levelled against us at least it is ending our parivarvaad and I thank the BJP for this he saidThe saffron party which has been opposed to dynastic politics wants to move forward by hatching conspiracies the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister allegedThe SP does not instigate differences in any family This is the work of the BJP he saidGupta is said to be the brother-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadavs second wife Aparna Yadav who joined the BJP on Wednesday is the SP patriarchs daughter-in-lawThe manner in which leaders with a wide support base like Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan have defected from the BJP and joined the SP the way the SP has brought different parties together the BJP has lost this fight of perception and the SP is way ahead Yadav saidThe Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7 and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10 PTI SAB RC

Lucknow Jan 20 PTI Making an important announcement Samajwadi Party SP president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said if his party comes to power in Uttar Pradesh it will restore the old pension scheme benefitting lakhs of state government employees who have been agitating for the same for longWith another relative of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav joining the BJP after Aparna Yadav Akhilesh Yadav took a swipe at the ruling party thanking it for ending parivarvaad dynastic politics in his partyOn coming to power the Samajwadi Party will restore the old pension scheme which will benefit the teachers employees and officers of the state government I have already held discussions with the employees and economic experts and have found out that we will be able to arrange funds for it by creating a corpus he told reporters hereWe will seek the support of the state government employees in the upcoming Assembly election on the issue of pension the SP chief saidThe leaders of the employees union have met several times and made a demand to this effect The BJP government had brought a new manual through which the employees appointed after April 2005 were denied this support and security on retirement Yadav said adding that restoring the pension scheme will be part of his partys poll manifestoThe employees have held agitations demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme They have alleged that the new pension scheme depends on the share market and therefore has uncertainty attached to itAccording to Rajya Karamchari Sanyukt Parishad president J N Tiwari the number of employees appointed after 2005 is around 10 lakh and most of them are teachersThe SP president also said his party is against privatisation and termed outsourcing a wrong practice that denies the poor and the deprived sections of the society their rightsThe rights given by the Constitution of B R Ambedkar are being snatched by outsourcing The SP is thinking about this as well wait for the manifesto he said adding that the party will release its manifesto after the BJP which had been working with a double engine for the last over four years and practising discriminationWhen his views were sought on Pramod Gupta another relative of Mulayam Singh Yadav who joined the BJP on Thursday after Aparna Yadav the SP chief took a swipe at the ruling party saying it should be happy nowThe BJP should be happy about this The allegation of parivarvaad that it levelled against us at least it is ending our parivarvaad and I thank the BJP for this he saidThe saffron party which has been opposed to dynastic politics wants to move forward by hatching conspiracies the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister allegedThe SP does not instigate differences in any family this is the work of the BJP he saidGupta is said to be the brother-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadavs second wife Aparna Yadav who joined the BJP on Wednesday is the SP patriarchs daughter-in-lawThe manner in which leaders with a wide support base like Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan have defected from the BJP and joined the SP the way the SP has brought different parties together the BJP has lost this fight of perception and the SP is way ahead Yadav saidTo a question on Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya the SP chief said he has not been able to safeguard his honour and could do nothing for the people of his casteThe Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7 and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10 PTI SAB RC

Lucknow Dec 30 PTI Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu has written to the Election Commission EC saying the party delegation that met officials of the poll panel on Tuesday was not authorised and seeking time for another meeting to put forth the partys views on holding free and fair pollsChief Election Commissioner CEC Sushil Chandra told reporters on Thursday that the leaders whose names were made available by the Congress in a letter had met the EC officialsOn Tuesday a three-member Congress delegation met the EC officials who are on a visit to Lucknow to take stock of the states preparedness for the upcoming Assembly pollsThe EC officials held a series of meetings with the representatives of various political parties who raised their poll-related demands and concernsLallu wrote a letter to the commission on Wednesday saying the three-member delegation that met officials of the poll panel was not authorised and seeking time for a meeting on ThursdayAsked about it the CEC said the leaders whose names were mentioned in a letter sent to the poll panel by the Congress had met the officialsIf reporters so wish the letter can be shared with them Chandra said replying to a query on the issueIn the letter addressed to the CEC Lallu said We want to bring to your knowledge that the delegation of the Indian National Congress that met you on Tuesday was not authorised On December 30 the authorised delegation comprising me Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra former MP Pramod Tiwari and Naseemudin Siddiqui following all Covid guidelines would like to give suggestions about the holding of free fair and timely elections Kindly give time to this delegation to meet you One of the three Congress leaders who met the EC officials said on the condition of anonymity that they were sent for the meeting by party general secretary organisation Dinesh SinghWe had gone after being instructed We do not know what transpired later he saidThe three Congress leaders who met the EC officials on Tuesday were Onkarnath Singh Virendra Madan and Mohammad Anas KhanThe Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls are due early next year PTI SAB RC

Lucknow Dec 30 PTI Newly-appointed Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh Durga Shankar Mishra assumed charge here on ThursdayMishra a 1984-batch IAS officer who was due to retire on December 31 was given the important responsibility ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly pollsMishra who was the Union housing and urban affairs secretary was repatriated to his parent cadre Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday as the Yogi Adityanath government proposed to appoint him as the new chief secretary barely two days before his retirementAt present Rajendra Kumar Tiwari a 1985-batch IAS officer is the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh He is due to retire in February 2023 Mishra has been given a one-year extension in serviceTalking to reporters after assuming office Mishra said he would work diligently to take various schemes of the government to peopleThis responsibility is a chance to serve to the best I can for all the people of my state he said PTI SAB RC