BJP, Cong likely to tackle demand for OPS in Himachal Pradesh manifestos

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the Congress will slug it out over the revival of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in Himachal Pradesh ahead of the Assembly elections, with both the parties set to promise to bring back the old system in their respective manifestos.

This will be the first state where the BJP will be making the promise, while the Congress had announced plans to bring back the OPS in the party-rules states in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. While the BJP is releasing its “Vision Document” on November 4, the Congress is releasing its manifesto on November 5.

The implementation of the New Pension Scheme has been a key electoral issue among the 4.5 lakh government employees of the hill state. There are as many as 70,000 retired government officials in the state, but the issue has found takers among government officials.

While the BJP had initially said that it would not revert back to the OPS, recently, leaders have given statements that the demand for the OPS will be tackled in its manifesto. Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur on November 1 said that the party’s Vision Document will have “something big” on the OPS.

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Congress’s media in-charge Alka Lamba told DH that the party was expecting the Jairam Thakur government to announce the NPS’s rollback on the day of notification. “The chief minister held a cabinet meeting, and they had a chance to announce that day, but they did not,” said Lamba.

Congress leaders told DH that the bringing back of the OPS is key among all their promises. Apart from that, to counter rising prices, the party is promising Rs 1500 to all women in the age group of 18 to 60 years of age in the state. The state has as many as 25 lakh women voters.

The Congress will also promise taking back the Agnipath scheme. “We have also promised a start-up fund of over Rs 580 crore, and we are vowing to create over 4 lakh jobs,” a senior leader from the party said.

The party’s manifesto committee, the leader said, spoke to several sets of stakeholders. This included ASHA workers, associations of apple-growers, ex-servicemen organisations as well as college girls, among other groups of people.

On the other hand, the BJP is likely to promise employment guarantees and vow to give permanent jobs to people. In addition to that, the party is also promising to develop some tourist sites. In all, leaders said, the party has 12 key promises.

Party leaders said that the manifesto will be released by national party president J P Nadda at Shimla’s British era building Peterhoff.

The party formed a committee under Rajya Sabha MP Sikander Kumar, and asked for suggestions from people across all 68 assembly segments. State leaders told DH that the party received over 27,000 suggestions in all for its Vision Document.