In a significant step to fulfil a key electoral promise, the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh on Friday decided to restore the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), which was discontinued in 2003-04 and replaced by New Pension Scheme (NPS).
It was also the Congress government, led by Virbhadra Singh, that had switched over to NPS without any opposition to this by the government employees.
Today terming it a historic move, Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said nearly 1.36 lakh government employees, including those employed in the Boards and corporations, will start getting all benefits of the reinstated scheme from January 13, co-coinciding with the Lohri festival.
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“We had promised in the elections that a decision of OPS will be taken in the first cabinet meeting. Today, the cabinet met in Shimla and took this landmark decision despite hurdles and fiscal crisis facing the government,” he declared at a press conference immediately after the cabinet meeting.
Earlier in the day, Sukhu presided over the first cabinet meeting of the new government.
The scheme shall be applicable with immediate effect, and notification in regard shall be done in a day or two, Sukhu said.
Himachal Pradesh is facing a debt burden of Rs 75000 cr, beside this there is a pending liability of Rs 4,430 cr arrears of salaries and another Rs 5226 cr payments due for the pensioners.
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Chief Minister said the previous BJP government had left a burden of Rs 1000 cr as arrears of the sixth pay commission.
“If we add a debt burden of Rs 75000 cr, the total liability will go up to Rs 91,000 cr. This was a really frightening amount but we had given a solemn commitment to the employees to implement OPS. We treat the OPS as an issue of social security and humanitarian help," said the Chief Minister.
Till now, besides Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh governments, three other non-BJP governments have a decision on OPS including West Bengal, Punjab and Jharkhand.
In reply to a question about the expense of the scheme on the state exchequer, Sukhu said the implementation of OPS will cost around Rs 800 to 900 crores. Additionally, in years to come, this expense will increase.
He said the state government had written to the centre asking to return Rs 8000 cr deposited as a 14 per cent contribution of the state government and another 10 per cent of the employee but sad to say the centre declined to do this.
“We have come to power, not to rule but for Vyvastha Privartan (system change),” Chief Minister as he was flanked by Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri and all cabinet ministers, besides state Chief secretary Probodh Saxena to make the decision public.
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Earlier, he was accorded a rousing welcome out of the state secretariat as hundreds of employees had gathered to cheer him up on taking the decision about OPS --- which became a key to the Congress victory in the poll.
The chief minister said two other decisions, Rs 1,500 pm for the women in the age group of 18 to 60 years and one lakh jobs will also be implemented in the month's time. Two cabinet sub-committees have been set up to work out modalities on this.
