The government's decision that the concerned University should take over the pension liability of university employees and teachers could lead to new controversies. Yet one has to accept the fact that it is a necessity as the financial position of the government is now in a deplorable state. The government has to borrow money every month to pay the monthly salaries of employees. Once the salary, pension and interest liability are met, there will be no more surplus to spend on public utilities. The five-yearly salary revision is also becoming a major liability for the government.

According to the new order issued by the Finance Department, universities will have to set up their own pension fund and pension board. 25% of the salary of the employee should be transferred to the pension fund within the 10th of every month. Of this, ten per cent can be derived from a grant provided by the government as state share. The remaining 15 per cent is to be borne by the universities from their own funds. The central government has been implementing a contributory pension scheme since 2013. It was also partially enforced in the state. However, due to the opposition of the service organizations, it did not get much recognition in general. Yet, 1.5 lakh people are now covered under the contributory pension scheme.

Providing pensions and other benefits to employees who retire after completing their service is not anyone's generosity. It is the responsibility of the state or the institution in which they worked. The demand that the entire pension liability be borne by the government itself is not acceptable today for a number of reasons. In developed countries, strong facilities are in place to provide some form of pension to all sections of the population. In our country, those belonging to the organized category are entitled to a statutory pension.

Universities will now have to set up a pension fund and take over the entire pension liability. For this, the universities will have to find a way to find the money for this. They cannot solely rely on government grants for this. At present, there are no universities in the state which have set up a pension fund. Things will change with the implementation of the new order. Universities will have to introduce measures such as raising student fees to increase revenue. Universities can increase revenue by reducing administrative costs, increasing fees, and obtaining higher grants from the government. These measures must be implemented through constructive reforms.

The situation is such that the government will have to gradually adopt and fully implement the contributory pension scheme. It will be forced to take a number of unpleasant decisions in order to overcome its financial liabilities. The decision to hand over pension liability of university employees entirely to universities is one such decision.