Rajasthan CM Gehlot announces restoration of OPS for state govt employees
Thursday, 24 February 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The decision of Rajasthan government to reinstate the benefit of Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for its employees appointed after January 1, 2004 has given new hope to about 80,000 employees of Uttarakhand government who are covered under the New Pension Scheme (NPS). In his budget speech on Wednesday the Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot surprised everyone by announcing that all the employees covered under the NPS in the state would be brought under the OPS.
The state president of National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS) Jeetmani Painuly told The Pioneer that the Rajasthan government has set up an example for other states including Uttarakhand on the OPS implementation. He said that thousands of employees of Uttarakhand covered under the NPS express their gratitude for the Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot for understanding the emotions of the employees. Painuly said that the representatives of NMOPS went to the leaders of both BJP and Congress before the assembly elections in Uttarakhand and requested them to make pre pre-election promise on the restoration of OPS but both the parties showed a restrained attitude. He said that the pension is a state subject so the Uttarakhand government should declare the restoration of OPS for the employees appointed after October 1, 2005. The president of Uttarakhand unit of NMOPS said that the employees are committed to take their struggle for restoration of OPS to desired end.
Why the Old Pension Scheme?
In an attempt to remove the ever increasing financial burden of the pensions, the Manmohan Singh government started the NPS for the employees appointed after the year 2004. Under it a portion of the salary of the employees is deducted every month and the government makes an equal contribution. This is invested in different debt and equity instruments to build up a corpus for the employee and on his retirement he or she receives the pension from the interest incurred from the corpus. The employees are finding the NPS non lucrative and are demanding the restoration of OPS in which the retiring employee gets 50 per cent of his last drawn salary as pension. In the OPS the employees also get the benefit of Dearness Allowance (DA), family pension and commutation.
