Himachal to implement OPS from April 1
Shimla: Ending suspense over the cut-off date for implementation of the Old Pension Scheme(OPS), the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet decided to bring 1.36 lakh employees, and also those who will be appointed to government jobs in future, under the ambit of OPS.
The scheme will become applicable from April 1.2023.
The Cabinet which met here under Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu cleared the ducks for the implementation of key election promises of the congress in the state.
The Cabinet has decided that from April 2023, the old pension will be fully implemented and the contribution of NPS will stop being deducted.
The new thing is that Himachal has made its own model to restore the old pension.
According to this, all NPS employees appointed after 2003 will be brought under the ambit of old pension, but for this, they will have to give an option.
Retired NPS employees will also be given the benefit of the old pension from a future date. That means they will not get arrears. The GPF accounts for employees will start from April 2023 and fresh rules will be made for this.
The state government will spend an additional Rs 1,000 crore on old pensions in the first year itself.
The Cabinet has also passed a resolution urging the Central government to return Rs 8,000 crore as a contribution to the state government as a decision has been taken to reverse the 1983-84 decision.
According to the decision, the Finance Department has been instructed to issue new pension rules. Along with this, the rules and standard operating procedures of GPF will also be issued.
The Cabinet also decided that these employees will also be brought under the ambit of GPF and those employees under New Pension Scheme (NPS), who have retired after May 15, 2003, will be given OPS from the prospective date.
It was decided that after necessary amendments in the rules, the contribution by the government and the employees under NPS will stop from April 1, 2023.
“No deductions would be made from the employees from their salary under NPS from April 1, 2023. If any employee wants to be governed under NPS, he can give his consent to the Government for the same,” said Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri.
The state Cabinet decided to engage 780 ASHA workers under National Health Mission (NHM) on an incentive basis to provide affordable and reliable healthcare to the people, as they function as health activists at the community level.
It also gave its nod to the guidelines for the engagement of ASHA facilitators under the Community Process Programme in NHM.
The Cabinet decided to transfer an amount of Rs. 600 per student to all the girls, Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribe and Below Poverty Line boys of 1st to 8th classes through Direct Benefit Transfer, either in the name of the student or mother, in lieu of providing them free School Uniform, which would benefit about 3.70 lakh students in the state.
