Ahead of polls, Maharashtra becomes first state to approve Unified Pension Scheme
central government's Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), becoming the first state to do so and just within 24 hours of Modi government's announcement.
The move by the Maharashtra government comes hours after employee unions demanded states to implement the newly approved scheme by the Modi government, which will take effect from April 1, 2025.
The poll-bound state has over 13.5 lakh employees, as per a TOI report.
This decision extends to employees of recognised and grant-aided educational institutions, non-agricultural universities and their affiliated aided non-government colleges, agricultural universities, as well as zilla parishad employees.
Moreover, on Saturday, cabinet secretary-designate T V Somanathan, who headed the panel to review NPS & held negotiations with staff organisations had said that Centre’s UPS template can be replicated by states.
Also Read: UPS vs NPS vs OPS: How the three pension schemes stack up against one another
Over 99 per cent of the employees covered under NPS would find it beneficial to shift to UPS, he had said.
The beneficiary numbers under UPS will rise to 9 million if state governments adopt the scheme.
About UPS
The Union government on August 24 had approved the UPS scheme, aiming to provide major benefit for 23 lakh central government employees.
The UPS guarantees a pension of 50 per cent of the basic salary for those who joined the service after January 1, 2004, under the National Pension System (NPS).
Opposition parties had been calling for the reinstatement of the old
