Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has promised a rethink over the old pension scheme (OPS) a month after he told the state assembly that its revival was impossible as it would cripple Maharashtra’s economy with a burden of about ₹1.10 lakh crore.
Fadnavis on Wednesday said they will discuss the OPS with the finance department and representatives of the government employees and try to go back to the scheme. This came days after chief minister Eknath Shinde said his government will consider relaunching the scheme.
Congress-ruled states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have announced reverting to the old way of providing pensions decades after it was discontinued during the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004.
The promise to reintroduce OPS is believed to have helped Congress win its first assembly election since 2019 in Himachal Pradesh last year. The party is expected to contest other elections on this populist plank. Maharashtra is due to go to the polls next year.
The issue of OPS has been raised ahead of the elections to the teachers’ constituencies of the Maharashtra legislative council. Associations representing teachers have been seeking the resumption of OPS.
Speaking at a rally for the council polls, Fadnavis said he was never against the OPS. “I spoke about the financial burden on the state exchequer in my speech at the assembly last month. I never said I was averse to it. We can think of implementing OPS by taking the burden on the kitty.”
He said the state economy is also growing robustly. Fadnavis said the state government was ready to discuss the issue and implement OPS. “We will ask the finance department for a way out, which would be a long-term solution.”
Fadnavis said only their government can do it. “The Congress-NCP [Nationalist Congress Party] governments were in power after the OPS was discontinued, but they did nothing to restart it. Now they have been demanding it after we took over. They are politicising the issue.”
Shinde became the chief minister last year with the BJP’s help after the fall of Uddhav Thackeray’s government following a rebellion of Shiv Sena lawmakers.