Employees collaborating in state-wide ongoing ‘cycle march’ throughout Haryana in assist of their demand to revive the outdated pension scheme, beneath the banner of – ‘Pension Bahali Sangarsh Samiti (Haryana)‘.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Though the Haryana Assembly election is due in the later a part of 2024, it looks as if the restoration of Old Pension Scheme (OPS) will likely be a key ballot concern in the State because the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led authorities would battle to retain energy for the third time period
As the clamour for restoring the OPS continues to develop amongst State authorities workers, a bunch of near 40 authorities workers beneath the banner of – ‘Pension Bahali Sangarsh Samiti (Haryana)‘, are on a state-wide ‘cycle march’ in assist of their demand to revive the OPS.
The cycle march, which began on June 2 from Nangal Choudhary in Mahendragarh district, will finish in Chandigarh on June 23 and a memorandum will likely be handed over to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya
“We are travelling across the State urging people and political parties to extend support for our demand. So far, we have marched through Rewari, Nuh, Palwal, Faridabad, Gurugram, Jhajjar and Rohtak. We will cover all the 22 districts of the State and on June 23 hand over the memorandum of our demand on the OPS restoration to the Haryana Governor,” Vijender Dhariwal, president of the affiliation instructed The Hindu on Thursday.
Mr. Dhariwal stated there are round 2.94 lakh common authorities workers in the State and out of which near 1.75 lakh authorities workers are lined beneath the National Pension System (NPS). “The employees and their families are annoyed with the government as their concerns arising out of NPS have been completely ignored. If the ruling alliance government (Bharatiya Janta Party-Jannayak Janta Party ) accepts our demand, we will be with them. We will start a campaign – ‘Vote for OPS’ – under this, we will urge people to vote for the political parties that would give us OPS,” he stated.
The OPS was abolished by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) authorities in December 2003 and the NPS got here into power on April 1, 2004.
As the election for the Haryana Assembly are closing in, Indian National Congress, the principle Opposition social gathering in the State has already began reaching out to folks for garnering assist by extending varied ‘guarantees’, and restoration of the OPS is one among its key ballot planks.
The restoration of the OPS was one of many key guarantees made by the Congress in the 2022 Assembly polls in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and after assuming energy the Himachal Pradesh authorities introduced the implementation of the OPS for authorities workers, who have been lined beneath the NPS.
The concern surrounding the OPS has gained such a proportion that ignoring it forward of the elections could be fairly tough for the incumbent authorities in the State. Interestingly, earlier this week, former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur admitted that the OPS concern had an influence on the electoral end result in his State through the 2022 Assembly ballot.
Responding to a query – throughout a press convention in Haryana’s Panchkula on the achievements of the Narendra Modi authorities on the Centre in the final 9 years – Mr. Thakur acknowledged that the OPS influence was one of many causes behind the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) defeat in 2022 Himachal Pradesh Assembly election.