CHENNAI: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday told the Assembly that the DMK government has resolved “95% to 99%” of all long-pending pension-related demands of state government employees, issues that remained unaddressed for nearly 23 years under previous regimes.
Replying to AIADMK member and former minister P Thangamani during the debate on the motion of thanks to the governor’s address, Stalin said the government viewed protests by employees with “concern, regret and care”, but questioned why similar sensitivity was absent during the AIADMK’s tenure.
“Government employees have every right to protest. With the intention of ensuring that such protests do not continue indefinitely, our ministers have held several rounds of talks with them. While not every issue has been fully resolved, the overwhelming majority of demands have been addressed,” Stalin said.
He underlined that the DMK government had not invoked the Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act (TESMA) or Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), nor resorted to midnight arrests or imprisonment of protesting employees, which are measures that were adopted during the previous AIADMK regime. “We are not mere spectators to their struggles,” the CM added.
Intervening in the debate, Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami alleged that only DMK-aligned employees’ associations had welcomed the Tamil Nadu Assured Pension Scheme (TAPS), while a majority of employees opposed it. He further claimed that the DMK had “cheated” government employees by introducing TAPS with employee contributions, despite promising to restore the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).
In response, Stalin reiterated that the DMK government had resolved issues that had been pending for over two decades and recalled how leaders of government employees’ unions had visited the secretariat to express their happiness over the settlement of their demands, scenes widely covered by television channels and newspapers.
Acknowledging that a few issues remain unresolved, Stalin said discussions were ongoing with noon-meal workers, anganwadi workers and part-time teachers. “Their demands will also be addressed,” he assured, asserting that the Dravidian model government will continue to be in power.