Another Congress-ruled state has implemented the old pension scheme for its government employees.
Yes, the Siddaramaiah government of Karnataka has issued a notification to cover about 13,000 state government employees recruited after 2006 under the old pension scheme.
Announcing this, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that when government employees were on strike against the new pension scheme, he had promised them to fulfill this demand.
He wrote on social media platform “Even before the elections, when employees were on strike against the National Pension System (NPS), I had visited there and promised to complete it.”
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “I hope that this decision will bring relief to all the families of 13,000 NPS employees.”
Under the old pension scheme, a government employee is entitled to a monthly pension after retirement. The monthly pension is generally half of the individual’s last drawn salary.
Under the new pension scheme, employees contribute a part of their salary to the pension fund. Based on this, they are entitled to a lump sum amount on retirement.
The old pension scheme was discontinued in December 2003 and the new pension scheme came into effect on 1 April 2004.
OPS decision reversed in Rajasthan
Bhajanlal government has implemented NPS on the employees in the very first appointment. There is no mention of OPS anywhere in the order.
This means clearly that the old pension scheme will not be implemented in Rajasthan.
The previous Gehlot government of Rajasthan had implemented the old pension scheme instead of the new pension scheme, but the Bhajanlal Sharma government has issued an order to implement NPS again instead of OPS for the newly appointed personnel.