Hyderabad: Over one lakh state government employees took out a protest march, “Jana Jatara”, on Sunday along with their family members at the Exhibition Grounds, Nampally, demanding the abolition of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).
The rally organised under the aegis of the TS CPS Employees Union (TSCPSEU) has given an ultimatum to the state government to abolish CPS by August 23, or else they would be forced to go on an indefinite strike and bring the state administration to a grinding halt.
Addressing the rally, the TSCPSEU president, G. Sthitaprajna, lashed out at the state government for failing to act on their genuine demand for the past four years. “The state government’s argument that the abolition of CPS is under the purview of the Central government is totally false. Some senior officials in the government are deliberately misleading the CM on this issue. We have submitted enough proof to the government supporting the fact that state governments have the power to abolish CPS and implement their own pension schemes,” Mr Sthitaprajna stated.
He said that though the implementation of CPS was done by government in undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2004, the TS government had the choice to scrap it after the formation of the state of Telangana in 2014.
“Unfortunately, the TS government issued a government order on August 23, 2014, expressing it’s willingness to join the CPS.
He said there are nearly 1.32 lakh employees in Telangana who are covered under the CPS. Mr Sthitaprajna said that the plight of the more than 260 CPS employees who died while in service was pathetic and the retired CPS employees have not yet got their dues from the state.
