Old Pension Scheme in Himachal Pradesh: The election results of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have been declared. The ruling BJP has registered a historic victory in Gujarat.
But in Himachal, the Congress has snatched away the key to power from the BJP. The Congress holds 40 of the 68 assembly seats in Himachal. The party got 43.90 percent votes this time. The names of Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Mukesh Agnihotri and Pratibha Singh are doing the rounds for the next Chief Minister of the state.
The biggest challenge in implementing the old pension
will be to implement the old pension scheme in front of the new Chief Minister who will take over the chair of the state. It is believed that after the formation of the Congress government, the government employees of the state will be given the gift of Old Pension Scheme (OPS). In fact, the Congress had promised to implement the ‘Old Pension Scheme’ during the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
It will be difficult to manage the finances of the state.
This possibility increases because the old pension scheme (OPS) has already been implemented in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. On coming to power, the party had promised to implement it in Gujarat and Himachal as well. If the election promises are fulfilled by the newly formed Himachal government, then financial management will be a big challenge for the government. The state government already has a debt of about 70 thousand crores.
Loan of more than 5000 crores in the financial year
In September 2022 itself, the Himachal government had taken a loan of Rs 2500 crores from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Earlier, the state government had taken a loan of Rs 1000 crore in July and Rs 1500 crore in August. In this way, the Himachal government had taken a loan of 5000 crores in the current financial year. The government already had a debt of Rs 62,200 crore. Based on the latest figures, the state government has a debt of about 70,000 crores. In such a situation, implementing the old pension scheme will be no less than a challenge.
It has already been said by the NITI Aayog that the decision to implement the old pension scheme by debt-ridden states can be dangerous for the economy. Let us tell you that the Himachal government had last announced the increase in dearness allowance in January 2022. At that time, the then Chief Minister Jairam Thakur had increased the dearness allowance for July 2021 by 3 percent from 28 to 31 percent.
