Pension will increase by 5 to 15 percent for the pensioners of Himachal Pradesh between 65 and 75 years of age. Apart from this, the state government will release Rs 25 crore for the payment of medical bills of pensioners. The government has made a provision of Rs 1,000 crore to release the first installment of arrears to 1.90 lakh pensioners and about two lakh employees. Giving revised pension to pensioners will put an additional burden of Rs 130 crore on the government. These announcements were made by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur while presiding over the meeting of Joint Advisory Committee (JCC) of pensioners at the State Secretariat on Wednesday. JCC meeting of pensioners was held for the first time in the state. About 100 representatives of pensioners attended the meeting.
The pension and family pension of pre-2016 pensioners will be received from January 1, 2016 under the revised Pay Matrix formula 2.57. Pensioners will get 50 per cent and family pension at 30 per cent. The Finance Department will issue an order in this regard soon. The government will soon issue identity cards to pensioners. In the meeting, the CM informed that the minimum pension and family pension has been increased from Rs 3,500 to Rs 9,000 per month with effect from January 1, 2016. The maximum limit of gratuity has been increased from the present Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. Chief Secretary RD Dhiman, Additional Chief Secretary Finance Prabodh Saxena, Finance Secretary Dr. Akshay Sood and Vice Chairman of Himachal Employees and Pensioners Welfare Board Ghanshyam Sharma were also present in the meeting.
