THEOPTIMISTICJOURNALIST

UP: Government Employees get one-time-option to Switch To OPS

The Yogi Adityanath-led Government of UP is set to provide its employees a one-time option so that they can switch to the Old Pension Scheme. While States like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh had earlier revived the OPS, Karnataka and Telangana are mulling the restoration.

In a recent turn of events, the Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh Government is poised to give its employees a One-Time option to facilitate the switch to Old Pension Scheme.

The decision by the UP Cabinet brings under its purview the state government employees, employees of educational institutions aided by the government, autonomous institutions funded by state government, in which pension scheme of employees had been in force and which were financed from the consolidated fund of the state government.

Employees that received appointment on or after April 1, 2005, for the posts regarding which the advertisement had been published before March 28, 2005,  and which were notified to be covered under the implementation of the National Pension System, by the UP government are set to benefit from the One-time switch to the OPS.

Similarly, orders were issued by the Union Government, on March 3,.2023, Employees appointed on or after January 1, 2004, against a vacancy, the advertisement for which was made public by the Union Government before the December 22, 2003 and which included the implementation of NPS, qualified to avail a one-time option for the old pension scheme.

The development takes place with the backdrop of an apparent halt to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Juggernaut in Uttar Pradesh. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha 2024 polls, the BJP won only 33 seats against 62 seats from 2019 and 71 seats from 2014 Lok Sabha elections, respectively.

Political Pundits attribute an alleged dissatisfaction among the Government Employees as reasons behind the unexpected verdict.

However, the recent decision by Yogi Adityanath-led UP Government will come as an unanticipated gift to a significant number of employees.