Friday, 09 December 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
State unit of NMOPS plans to intensify its agitation for restoration of old pension scheme
The results of the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh has not only enthused the supporters of the Congress party but has gladdened the hearts of the State government employees demanding restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in Uttarakhand. The government employees constitute a considerable vote bank in HP and were supporting the Congress party this time because it had promised to restore the benefit of OPS to the employees who come under the New Pension Scheme (NPS). After the victory of the Congress, these employees are hoping that the State government would implement OPS in HP. The Congress ruled States of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have already restored the OPS for their employees.
The members of the National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS) in Uttarakhand are attributing the victory of the Congress party to the support of government employees. The president of the State unit of NMOPS, Jeetmani Painyuli said that the results of HP have shown the strength of employees to the political parties. He said that a mega rally was held in Shimla on March 3 this year under the leadership of NMOPS national president Vijay Kumar Bandhu and HP State president Pradeep Thakur. He said that the agitation for OPS would be intensified in Uttarakhand.
There are more than 80,000 employees, teachers and officers who are currently under the New Pension Scheme (NPS) in Uttarakhand. The NPS was started in the year 2004 to reduce the ever increasing burden of pension on the State exchequer. 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 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 employee retiring 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.
