Hooda Criticizes Centre's Pension Scheme in Haryana

Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda has labeled the Centre's Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) as 'anti-employee' and stated that the Congress party will implement the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in Haryana if they win the upcoming assembly elections on October 1. Hooda criticized the UPS, which offers a pension of 50% of the basic salary after 25 years of service, arguing that it disproportionately harms paramilitary personnel who retire early, leaving them with only a minimal pension of Rs 10,000. He also claimed that under the UPS, employees would not see a return on even 10% of their contributions due to the removal of dearness allowance (DA), effectively halving their pension. Furthermore, Hooda drew parallels with the New Pension Scheme (NPS), which was previously promoted as better than the OPS, suggesting that the same misleading narrative is now being applied to the UPS. He reiterated that there is a strong demand among employees for the OPS's return, which guarantees half of the last drawn basic pay as pension.