Chennai: Government schools and offices all over the state on Tuesday were hit by the strike called by the Joint Action Committee of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisations (JACTTO-GEO).
Demanding to implement the old pension scheme and revise the pay structure on par with the Central government staff, lakhs of teachers and employees abstained from work on Tuesday.
They also held demonstrations at 400 places all over the state. “The call for the strike received unprecedented support from teachers. Several thousand schools in the state could not function on Tuesday," said P. Ilangovan, one of the state convenors of Jactto-Geo.
“Of 1.91 lakh teachers and non-teaching staff working in school education, 1.10 lakh participated in the strike. Of 1.50 lakh teachers and non-teaching staff in elementary education 1.25 lakh did not go to the schools,” he said.
However, the officials said 50 per cent of teachers have participated in the strike.
The teachers and government employees are planning to go on indefinite strike from September 7 if they are not called for talks by the government.
"We are united in our demand to scrap the new pension scheme. If the government does not issue orders for the old pension scheme then we will resort to indefinite strike," said J. Ganesan, another state convener of Jactto-Geo.
Due to the all India bank strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions, the services of the public sector banks, old private banks and regional banks are affected in the state.
"Almost all the public sector banks were remained closed on Tuesday. We demand the central government to take strong actions to recover the bad loans and not to privatise the public sector banks," said C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association.
