The employees demanding the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) have decided to launch a ‘vote for restoration of OPS’ campaign in the State. A rally was organised by the National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS) in Haldwani on Monday. In the rally attended by a large number of employees, officers and teachers from all parts of the State took a pledge to vote for the party which would support the demand for restoration of OPS. Speaking on the occasion, the national president of the NMOPS, Vijay Kumar Bandhu said that giving pensions to the employees is a State subject. He said that the employees have shown their power in the recent Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections. He said that OPS has been restored in five States of the country.

Addressing the employees, the president of NMOPS, Uttarakhand Jeetmani Painuli warned that the State government would have to face the consequences in the next year’s Lok Sabha elections. The general secretary of NMOPS Mukesh Raturi said that the Uttarakhand government should restore the benefit of the OPS without any delay. He said that the movement would be strengthened further in the State and similar rallies would be held in Srinagar and Dehradun. The president of the NMOPS, Delhi unit Manjit Patel said that the Uttarakhand government should follow the example of five States that have restored the OPS. After the rally the employees handed over a memorandum to the Haldwani sub divisional magistrate.

There are more than 80,000 employees, teachers and officers which are currently under the New Pension Scheme (NPS) in Uttarakhand. The NPS was started in the year 2004 to reduce the increasing burden of pension on state exchequer. The employees are finding the NPS non lucrative and are demanding the restoration of OPS in which the retiring employee gets 50 per cent of his last drawn salary as pension and the movement is gaining ground in all parts of the country.