Members of Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association staging a protest in Madurai on Monday.
| Photo Credit: G. MOORTHY
Demanding restoration of the old pension scheme among other demands, members of Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association staged a 24-hour protest here on Monday.
R. Tamil, district president, TNGEA, said Tamil Nadu government as it had promised should cancel the new pension scheme and restore the old pension scheme for government employees in the State.
For midday meal scheme and anganwadi workers, revenue village assistants, rural librarians, MRB nurse, who are under an irregular pay system, should be regularised, he added.
They should also be made eligible to receive pension, Mr. Tamil said.
“Tamil Nadu government, which reduced the government job opportunities on compassionate grounds from 25% to 5%, should reconsider it and bring back the early 25% system,” the protesters said.
Even when there was a 25% chance of being recruited on compassionate grounds, many of them were deemed ineligible and were denied jobs under the rules. “Now when it is 5%, any reason can be cited by the government to deny jobs under such grounds,” they said.
Due to several vacancies in the government sector, the work burden has to be borne by the existing staff, they lamented.
In addition to bearing the heavy workload, employees are instructed to attend meetings or conferences very often on their holidays, he stated.
“Review meeting or other official visits, which are scheduled mostly on leave days, should be scheduled on working days,” he said.
The morning breakfast scheme, which is limited to particular schools, should be expanded to include all the government schools. “Instead of recruiting contract workers, the midday meal scheme workers themselves should be utilised for this work too,” he added.
Pointing out that the demands were not new, the protesters said that many of the demands raised were already included in the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s election promises.
“Even after crossing three years, long-pending demands are still waiting to be implemented,” the agitators added.
They said that if their demands were still not met, their next stage of protest would be more vigorous.
Published – February 10, 2025 07:16 pm IST