Talks fail, state staff to strike work from Oct 25
LUCKNOW: Demanding restoration of the old pension scheme, lakhs of government employees, including teachers, have decided to proceed on a three-day strike from October 25, after last-minute talks with the UP government failed here on Monday. Denied benefits of the old pension scheme, employees turned up in huge numbers at the Kanshi Ram Eco Green Garden on the erstwhile Lucknow Jail Road here on Monday under the banner of the State Employees’ Joint Council (SEJC).
LUCKNOW : Demanding restoration of the old pension scheme, lakhs of government employees, including teachers, have decided to proceed on a three-day strike from October 25, after last-minute talks with the UP government failed here on Monday.
Denied benefits of the old pension scheme, employees turned up in huge numbers at the Kanshi Ram Eco Green Garden on the erstwhile Lucknow Jail Road here on Monday under the banner of the State Employees’ Joint Council (SEJC).
Addressing the gathering, the speakers, who included union leader Hari Kishore Tiwari, highlighted how lakhs of government employees were left out of the old pension scheme despite winning a court battle on the issue. They said the same scheme was still applicable to Members of Parliament.
The agitating employees then marched in a procession towards Vidhan Sabha and staged a sit-in. The demonstration set the government machinery rolling and deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma was entrusted the task of convening a meeting with the union leaders and top brass to broker a truce.
Chief secretary Anup Chandra Pandey, additional chief secretary, Mukul Singhal, district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma and senior officials of the finance department were called by the deputy chief minister along with a delegation of agitating union leaders to listen to the latter’s demand.
The half-an-hour long meeting, however, failed to break the deadlock. Tiwari alleged that the new pension scheme introduced for the employees was nothing but a Rs 5,700 crore scam.