Bengaluru, Jun 14 (IANS): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that a discussion will be held in the cabinet regarding implementation of the old pension scheme and a decision will be taken to announce it in the budget.

Interacting with a delegation of office bearers of ANPS employees' union that met him to urge cancellation of New Pension Scheme, he said that the employees should work efficiently to implement the guarantee schemes of the government, and ensure the benefits of the government programmes reach the people.

Former MLC V.S.Ugrappa, who also spoke on the occasion, informed that 2.98 lakh employees are covered under NPS and the pension amount is deposited in NSDL.

This amount can be deposited in the GPF which can be made available at the time of retirement, he said, adding that the government should decide to drop the disciplinary action taken against those who took part in the Vote for OPS campaign.

"The NPS has been cancelled in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and it should also be cancelled in Karnataka and the old pension scheme should be implemented. By cancelling NPS, a total of Rs 19,000 crore will be available under the scheme which can be used for development programmes of the government. Rs 9,000 crore of employees' share can be converted to GPF and 10,000 crores of government share can be used for development programmes," Karnataka State NPS employees' union president Shantaram Teja said.

Representatives of the Primary School Teachers Association, the KPTCL, the BWSSB, Revenue, Health and other departmental associations were present.