Gandhinagar: In a significant administrative move, the Gujarat government on Wednesday announced the inclusion of 11 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in the state under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), offering them retirement benefits that had been discontinued for most recruits post-2004.
According to an official notification issued by the state’s Finance Department, these officers have been brought under the OPS by taking into consideration their initial years of service that began through the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) recruitment process around 2005.
Retrospective Service Period Recognized
The officers in question were originally recruited through GPSC before being inducted into the IPS between 2011 and 2015. The government has now retrospectively acknowledged their service tenure from the time of their initial recruitment, thereby qualifying them for OPS benefits.
“This decision has been made after evaluating the recruitment and appointment records from the relevant period,” the finance department stated in the circular.
Benefits to Reflect in Service Books
The Pay and Accounts Office in Gandhinagar has been instructed to update the service books of the officers to reflect the inclusion under the Old Pension Scheme. This update will ensure proper retirement benefit processing under the OPS framework.
The move is seen as part of a broader trend among various state governments revisiting the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and responding to long-standing demands by officers and employees for the more secure and guaranteed benefits of the OPS.
List of Beneficiary Officers
The 11 IPS officers who will now fall under the Old Pension Scheme include:
- R P Barot (IPS – Gujarat 2011), Additional Police Commissioner, Zone-5, Surat City
- R T Susha (IPS – Gujarat 2011), Deputy Inspector General, Marine Task Force, Hazira, Surat
- Sudha Pandey (IPS – Gujarat 2011), Deputy Inspector General, Armed Police Group-13, Rajkot
- Sujata Majumdar (IPS – Gujarat 2011), Joint Director, Police Academy, Karai
- S V Parmar (IPS – Gujarat 2012), Deputy Commissioner, Zone-1, Rajkot City
- S J Chavda (IPS – Gujarat 2013), Superintendent of Police, Bharuch
- Usha Rada (IPS – Gujarat 2013), Jail Superintendent, Vadodara
- S R Odedra (IPS – Gujarat 2014), Superintendent of Police, Junagadh
- N R Patel (IPS – Gujarat 2015), Commandant, Metro Security-1, Ahmedabad
- J A Patel (IPS – Gujarat), Superintendent of Police, SCRB, Gandhinagar
This administrative decision has been welcomed by various police welfare associations and is likely to encourage similar reviews for other government service batches recruited under similar timelines.
