VIJAYAWADA: Stepping up their protests against the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), hundreds of government employees and teachers took out a march to Gymkhana Grounds from the railway station here on Saturday as part of ‘Walk for Pension, Vote for Pension’ programme. At the public meeting, attended by Congress state chief N Raghuveera Reddy and several other leaders, government employees made it clear that they would not back down till their demand to withdraw the scheme is met. Raghuveera Reddy urged the State government to cancel the CPS.
According to him, it was the NDA government which first proposed the scheme in 2001-02 and by 2004, it prepared the draft policy. After the UPA came to power in September 2004, it became an Act. Andhra Pradesh was the first State to implement the scheme in 2009.“The government employees and teachers are not favouring CPS and want the old scheme to continue. The government should withdraw CPS,” he said. He urged the TDP government to take a decision on the issue by October 2.