Himachal Congress stands firm on OPS, slams BJP over UPS push

State Congress president Vinay Kumar on Wednesday asserted that the Congress government would not allow the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to be discontinued in Himachal Pradesh. Reacting sharply to Union Health Minister JP Nadda’s statement that the OPS would be replaced by the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) once the BJP comes to power in the state, Kumar termed the remarks unfortunate and anti-employee.

He said replacing the OPS with the UPS would amount to an injustice and betrayal of government employees, who had been demanding social security after retirement. Calling upon employees to remain united, he urged them to understand the BJP’s policies and safeguard their rights.

Kumar also accused the previous BJP government, led by former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, of failing to clear employees’ dues during its tenure. He alleged that the Congress government inherited a debt burden of more than Rs 70,000 crore along with employee liabilities exceeding Rs 10,000 crore because of what he described as wasteful expenditure by the BJP regime.

Referring to the natural disasters that have struck Himachal over the past three years, Kumar said the state had suffered unprecedented losses of life and property. However, he claimed that despite the devastation, the Narendra Modi-led Central Government did not provide any special financial package for disaster relief.

Targeting BJP leaders, Kumar alleged that they were attempting to mislead the people of the state by presenting incorrect figures regarding Central assistance. He maintained that the BJP was not genuinely concerned about Himachal’s development and said people would never forgive the party for discontinuing the Revenue Deficit Grant to the state.