Himachal: Retirees seek pension for short-term service

Nurpur, June 25

The Himachal Pradesh New Pension Scheme (NPS) Retired Employees’ Association has urged Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to disburse a dignified monthly pension to the employees, who had served less than 10 years in different government departments of the state before their retirement.

In a statement issued here today, association president Sanjiv Guleria said the state government had fulfilled the poll guarantee of giving benefits of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to the government employees, who had served over 10 years in the government service before their retirements. “But the employees, who had served for less than 10 years in government departments before their retirement, are a harried lot as they were deprived of any service pension benefit. The government should give pensions to these employees according to their official designations,” he added.

He said that the OPS was scrapped on January 1, 2004, by the then Central Government that had created a sense of insecurity within the government employees, but the Sukhu-led government had taken a historic decision by restoring the OPS in the state.