Himachal Pradesh government has decided to implement the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to benefit 1.36 lakh employees and those new, who will be appointed for the government service in future will also be brought under the ambit of  the OPS.

This was decided here on Friday during the cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

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It was also decided that these employees will also be brought under the ambit of GPF and those employees under New Pension Scheme (NPS), who have retired after 15 May, 2003, will be brought under the OPS from the prospective date.

The Cabinet further decided that after necessary amendments in the rules, the contribution by the government and the employees under NPS will stop from 1April, 2023.

No deductions would be made from the employees from their salary under NPS from 1 April, 2023 and if any employee wants to be governed under NPS, he can give his consent to the government for the same.

The government will spend an additional amount of Rs. 1000 crore in the fiscal year 2023-24 on the implementation of OPS.

The cabinet has also passed a resolution to be sent to the Union Government to return an amount of Rs. 8000 crore under the NPS, to the state.

The Cabinet has asked the Finance Department to amend the rules and issue necessary instructions in this regard.

It was decided by the cabinet to engage 780 ASHA workers under National Health Mission (NHM) on an incentive basis to provide affordable and reliable healthcare to the people, as they function as health activists at the community level.

Nod was given by Cabinet to the guidelines for the engagement of ASHA facilitators under the Community Process Programme in NHM.

The Cabinet decided to transfer an amount of Rs. 600 per student to all the girls, the Schedule Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST) and Below Poverty Line (BPL) boys of first to eighth classes through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), either in the name of the student or mother, in lieu of providing them free School Uniform, which would benefit about 3.70 lakh students in the state.

The Cabinet has given go-ahead to lease out the toll barriers under Himachal Pradesh Tolls Act, 1975 by way of auction-cum tender process for the year 2023-24.