Chandigarh: A day after Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar claimed that the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) ‘isn’t viable’ and even Rajasthan has withdrawn it, his Rajasthan counterpart Ashok Gehlot said Friday that Khattar’s remarks are “factually incorrect”.
In a statement posted in Hindi on his official Twitter handle, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that someone seems to have provided Khattar wrong information as the OPS implemented in Rajasthan on April 1, 2022, is still in place.
“I came to know from media reports that while speaking about the OPS, you said that Rajasthan has withdrawn the scheme. I want to tell you that you have been provided incorrect information and thus, the statement you gave is factually incorrect,” Gehlot said.
Rajasthan introduced OPS on April 1, 2022, and the state government has since given its benefit to all the 652 employees who had retired after 2004, reads the statement. “I want to tell you that a similar untrue statement was given by the then Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur during the assembly elections in that state. I went to Shimla and placed the true facts before the people of the Hill State in a press conference there,” Gehlot added.
Notably, speaking about the drawbacks of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) on Thursday during a presser, Khattar cited a WhatsApp message and said, “Yesterday I got a message on Whatsapp where a central government official said that if the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) is implemented then the country will go bankrupt by 2030… Rajasthan has also withdrawn this subject.”
Under the OPS, a retired central government employee gets a defined pension — 50 percent amount of the last drawn salary. However, under the National Pension System (NPS), which is in effect since April 1, 2004, the pension amount is contributory and dependent on the market-based returns over a long term.
In January, the newly-elected Congress government in Himachal Pradesh led by Sukhwinder Sukhu announced the implementation of OPS. Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Punjab are the other states where the OPS has already been restored.
In his letter posted on Twitter, Gehlot also urged Khattar to restart the scheme in the state on “a humanitarian basis”.
In Haryana, the OPS was replaced by the NPS in 2004 when the scheme came into effect. All employees who joined government jobs after April 1, 2004, will be covered under the NPS.
Meanwhile, government employees across Haryana are up in arms against the government demanding its implementation and threatened to launch a protest.
Sarbat Singh Poonia, a Sarva Karamchari Sangh activist and general secretary of the Haryana Roadways Workers Union told ThePrint Friday, “Government employees across Haryana will launch a state-wide agitation from February 14. We have also appealed to the leaders of the Opposition parties to raise their issue in the state assembly during the budget session beginning February 20.”
Khap Panchayat’s in Haryana have also announced to gherao Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s residence in Chandigarh on February 19 to force the government to implement the OPS.
Om Prakash Kandela, president of the Kandela Khap, Jind district, said while talking to The Print that while MPs and MLAs enjoy a handsome pension even after serving the Parliament or the state Assembly for a single term of five years, the employees serving the state for three decades or more are being denied the OPS.
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The OPS-NPS debate
In his press conference on Thursday, Khattar had said that in 2006, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also opposed the Old Pension Scheme. “Manmohan Singh is a great economist and he said in 2006 that the Old Pension Scheme will take India backward as the vision of the scheme is myopic… No one can implement this without the Parliament…,” he added.
Responding to Khattar, Gehlot said in his letter, “I want to inform you that in the 7th Schedule of the Constitution of India, point number 42 of the State List clearly says that the state pension is to be paid from the Consolidated Fund and the states have the right to make laws on this issue. Under these circumstances, your statement that only the Centre can allow the OPS is inappropriate.”
Leader of Opposition, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala have earlier came out in support of OPS.
Deepender Hooda, Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member from Haryana tweeted on Thursday that he has given a notice in the upper house for raising the issue of OPS in all para-military forces.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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