Bengaluru | Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday hinted at holding discussions on implementing the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in the cabinet meeting and announcing a decision in the budget.

He was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office during an interaction with a delegation of office-bearers of NPS employees' union that met him urging cancellation of New Pension Scheme (NPS).

Former MLC V S Ugrappa, who spoke on the occasion said 2.98 lakh employees are covered under NPS. The pension amount is deposited in NSDL. This amount can be deposited in GPF which can be made available at the time of retirement, the statement said.

He explained that the government should decide to drop the disciplinary action taken against those who took part in the 'Vote for OPS' campaign.

"NPS has been cancelled in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. 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 is 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 Rs 10,000 crore of government share can be used for development programmes," Karnataka State NPS employees' union president Shantaram Teja was quoted as saying.