Parliamentary Board Authorized Jayaram to Decide on OPS: Chandrashekhar

Jairam Lost Touch with Reality, Forgot Facts

Chandrashekhar, the Executive President of the Himachal Pradesh Congress and MLA, has stated that the opposition leader Jayaram Thakur seems to have been influenced by a filmy narrative and has forgotten the facts regarding the old pension scheme issue. He mentioned that under the leadership of Chief Minister Sukhwindar Singh Sukhu, the current Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, in its very first cabinet meeting, reinstated the old pension scheme, making Himachal Pradesh the first state in the country to do so. However, now the opposition leader Jayaram Thakur is misleading employees by making baseless statements. Chandrashekhar stated that the BJP’s candidate is denying the existence of the reinstated old pension scheme brought by the Congress government and repeatedly claims that the Congress did not provide OPS. Meanwhile, the state government has already extended the benefit of the old pension to over a thousand retired employees in Mandi district and has ensured the future security of more than 22,000 employees in the district under the OPS.

Chandrashekhar questioned whether the BJP has authorized Jayaram Thakur to decide on the old pension scheme through the Parliamentary Board. He raised concerns about why, after the BJP formed the government in Rajasthan, they discontinued the old pension scheme provided during the Congress government’s time. He recalled that when employees were demanding the old pension scheme during the previous BJP government, Jayaram Thakur, who was the Chief Minister then, did not even invite them for negotiations. Instead, when employees protested, they were beaten by the police, water cannons were used against them, and they were ridiculed. He emphasized that the state government employees have not forgotten Jayaram Thakur’s disrespectful actions.

Chandrashekhar highlighted that the work that the previous BJP government failed to do, the current state government accomplished in its very first cabinet meeting. He stated that Jayaram Thakur’s inability to reinstate the old pension scheme is his personal moral defeat, and now he is giving factless statements to confuse the employee class. The Executive President of the Pradesh Congress said that the state government employee class remembers that during the BJP government’s tenure, the old pension scheme was discontinued under national policy in 2002. The BJP not only took away the pension from the employees but also robbed them of their self-respect and dignity, leaving them in misery in their old age. He said that when Thakur Sukhwinder Singh rose from a common family to the Chief Minister’s chair, he understood the suffering of the employees and reinstated the old pension without any political motive. Employees who were receiving only Rs. 2500 in NPS are now receiving pensions up to Rs. 25,000 with the reinstatement of the old pension scheme.