CHENNAI: Major unions of state government employees are gearing up for fresh protests demanding the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), after the committee constituted by the state government to study the issue sought additional time to submit its final report.
A few union representatives TNIE spoke to said they were expecting Chief Minister MK Stalin to restore OPS, which was among the DMK’s electoral promises.
Condemning the committee headed by senior IAS officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi for seeking more time to submit its final report, the Tamil Nadu Secretariat Association (TANSA) announced that their members will carry out their work by wearing black badges on October 6 to register their sentiment that the committee has lost its credibility.
Meanwhile, the Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisations and the Government Employees Organisation (JACTTO-GEO), an umbrella body of staff associations, said it will announce its next course of action on October 8. TANSA president G Vengadesan said although the committee was given nine months to submit its report, it has instead enacted a “drama” by submitting an interim report and seeking an extension.
“In an era of technology where millions of data points can be analysed within hours, the claim that the committee needs more time because the data points are high is laughable,” he told TNIE. He added that TANSA had already submitted a detailed report with 25 years of budgetary statistics to show that restoring OPS is financially viable.
M Srinivasan, coordinator of JACTTO-GEO and general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Government Employees’ Association (TNGEA), said among the three pension models — Old Pension Scheme, Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), and Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) — only OPS had functioned properly in Tamil Nadu. He dismissed CPS as “useless” and argued that UPS has “no relevance” to the state, which is not even a member of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.
“There is no necessity to consult either the PFRDA or any financial institution to bring back OPS, as claimed by the committee,” Srinivasan explained.