10,000 govt workers gather on road, hold up traffic in Chennai

Chennai: More than 10,000 state government employees and teachers belonging to Jacto-Jio took part in a huge rally held near the Chepauk guest house on Saturday. They belonged to about 70 government employees unions affiliated to the Jacto-Jio.

The rally led to big pile up of traffic in the area and caused traffic congestion in the neighbouring roads.

The employees demanded the scrapping of the new pension scheme, besides the implementation of the seventh pay commission recommendations. The union members accused the police of stopping and arresting hundreds of its members who arrived from various districts to participate in the rally.

The demands for scrapping new pension scheme is more than a decade old, while the other demand for implementing the seventh pay commission recommendations arose after the Centre implemented them for its employees from 2016.

The new pension scheme is applicable for employees who joined after April 1, 2003, and according to it 10 per cent of   employees salary is deducted every month. In the earlier pension scheme, there was no deduction from the employees salaries.

The demand was placed before former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in 2011, but it was not implemented by the state government. During the 2016 Assembly election campaign, Jayalalithaa had promised to scrap the new pension scheme and bring beack the earlier one. But, the AIADMK government had not fulfilled its election promise yet.

The state government had set up a committee to look into the recommendations of the seventh pay commission following the demand of government workers in 2016. But, the term of the committees has been extended and the panel is yet to submit its report.

M. Anbarasan, high level committee member of Jacto-Jio complained that the government is delaying negotiations and the committee looking into the pay commission recommendations is also dragging the submission of its report. So, the government workers decided to take out a rally to draw the attention of the government towards their demands. The agitations would continue and a token strike would be held on August 22, he added.

Opposition leaders flay arrest of employees

Opposition leaders including DMK working president M.K. Stalin on Saturday condemned the arrest of government employees, who arrived from various parts of the state to the city to take part in a rally demanding implementation of seventh pay commission.

The leaders also wanted the release of the arrested government workers and asked the government to hold negotiations with union representatives and find a solution.

Stalin said Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had forgotten the usual procedure of holding negotiations with government employees. The Chief Minister's action of using police to suppress democratic protests is causing anguish, he said.

The government had extended the term for the committee looking into the new pension scheme and the recommendations of seventh pay commission.

Instead of finding solutions to their just demands, the Chief Minister is dreaming of suppressing such protests using police, he said. Since the Chief Minister is afraid of holding negotiations with protesters, the protests in Kathiramangalam and Neduvasal are continuing, he said.

The Chief Minister should direct the committee looking into the recommendations of the seventh pay commission to submit its report immediately and find a solution to the demands.

Condemning the suppression of government employees protest, PMK youth wing leader Anbumani Ramadoss said the centre had implemented the recommendations of seventh pay commission, but the state government had not implemented them. The state government should have provided interim relief since the pay commission recommendations had not come into force.

He also recalled that former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had promised to cancel the new pension scheme and bring back the earlier scheme but the promise had not been fulfilled by the AIADMK government.  Banning the rally and arresting the participants who arrived from various parts of the state is condemnable, he said.