26K Telangana govt staff demand old pension plan at CM home constituency
Hyderabad: Over 26,000 state government employees took part in Ayutha Dharma Deeksha in Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s home constituency, Gajwel, demanding abolition of the contributory pension scheme (CPS).
They vowed to intensify their agitation till the government restores the old pension scheme. They warned the government that they would go to any extent to achieve their goal.
Addressing the rally, TS CPS Employees Association president G. Sthitaprajna said the success of the protest rally proved that employees will no longer tolerate the continuance of CPS.
“The permission to conduct the meeting was cancelled by the police department at the last minute. We approached the High Court and secured permission. Though we expected 10,000 employees to take part in the rally, over 26,000, including teachers, turned up voluntarily. This shows how vexed employees and their families are with the CPS,” Mr Sthitaprajna said.
He said the association will select 100 employees from each of the 31 districts, who will create awareness on the ill-effects of CPS.
“We will soon build a strong movement against CPS with 1.26 lakh employees to bring pressure on the Centre and state governments to abolish CPS. We are ready to boycott duties, go on strike, lose our salary. But we will not go back till CPS is abolished,” Mr Sthitaprajna declared.
He alleged that the government was discriminating against CPS employees by not paying them the same salary and pension as OPS staff, when both were performing the same duties.
“Some employees’ unions are trying to scuttle our agitation by bringing the issue of new Pay Revision Commission (PRC) to the forefront. They are spreading rumours that if we fight against the government, it will not constitute new PRC. We will fight for both new PRC and OPS,” Mr Sthitaprajna said.
He said CPS employees and their families are deprived of social and financial security as they are not getting pension after retirement nor is any assistance given to their families in case the employee dies.
