Cong govt in Himachal Pradesh restores Old Pension Scheme

SHIMLA: Keeping up its election promise, the Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu government decided to restore the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in Himachal Pradesh.

Sukhu had taken over as Chief Minister on December 11, after the Congress victory in the crucial state Assembly elections winning 40 seats in the 68-member Assembly, more than a two-thirds majority.

The OPS has been Congress‘s biggest poll plank to dethrone the BJP, which had opposed the employees’ unions demand for scrapping New Pension Scheme (NPS) implemented from 2003-04 in the state.

The much-awaited first meeting of the Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu took place at the state secretariat on Friday. In this, the first guarantee of the Congress government i.e. Old Pension Scheme (OPS) was approved.

Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh said, “During the assembly election, I had said for the first time that OPS would be restored. In the past days, I had several rounds of meetings with the officers to assess the state’s financial position and work out a formula to go back to the OPS.”

Sukhu said the decision of the Cabinet will benefit about 1.36 lakh employees, who have been part of the state’s development but were denied their due by the previous government.

“The Finance Department will make the notification today or tomorrow. All the eligible employees of departments, boards, and corporations have been brought under this scheme. The government has given the gift of Lohri today. This was our first guarantee. Based on the formula of Chhattisgarh, OPS is being implemented in Himachal Pradesh by preparing its own formula,”

Sukhu claimed that the state’s debt liability has crossed Rs 75,000 cr. Beside this, the BJP government has left a huge liability payable to the employees.

Sukhu said the Cabinet has also taken a decision to grant Rs 1,500 to women as part of its second poll promise. A sub-committee has been set up for this under Cabinet ministers Dhani Ram Shandil, Chandra Kumar and Anirudh Singh and asked to give its report within a month.

The third election promise was to give one lakh people employment. A cabinet sub-committee has been formed for this. The committee of cabinet ministers Harshvardhan Chauhan, Jagat Negi and Rohit Thakur will also submit its report in a month, he said.

The decision on OPS led to massive celebrations among the employees who were assembled in huge numbers in front of the state secretariat.

The Chief Minister alongwith his Cabinet members were accorded a huge welcome and greeted for taking a “historic” decision on the OPS.

Till now two other Congress governments — Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have implemented the OPS apart from the AAP government in Punjab.