Rajasthan

• 27 Jan 2024

Clarity on the Old Pension Scheme

Why in News?

Recently, the Opposition party in Rajasthan requested clarification regarding the continuation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for government employees who joined service on or after January 1, 2004.

• The Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, brought up the issue during the Zero Hour.

Key Points

• The scheme assures life-long income, post-retirement.
• Under the old scheme, employees get a pension under a pre-determined formula which is equivalent to 50% of the last drawn salary. They also get the benefit of the revision of Dearness Relief (DR), twice a year. The payout is fixed and there was no deduction from the salary. Moreover, under the OPS, there was the provision of the General Provident Fund (GPF).
  • GPF is available only for all the government employees in India. Basically, it allows all the government employees to contribute a certain percentage of their salary to the GPF. And the total amount that is accumulated throughout the employment term is paid to the employee at the time of retirement.
• The Government bears the expenditure incurred on the pension. The scheme was discontinued in 2004.

Zero Hour

• A Zero Hour is an Indian parliamentary innovation. It is not mentioned in the parliamentary rules book.
  • Under this, the Members of Parliament (MPs) can raise matters without any prior notice.
• The zero hour starts immediately after the question hour and lasts until the agenda for the day (regular business of the House) is taken up.
• In other words, the time gap between the question hour and the agenda is known as zero hour.
  • The first hour of every parliamentary sitting is termed as Question hour. It is mentioned in the Rules of Procedure of the House.