Employees unions demand suspension of CPS

Karimnagar: M Raghu Shankar Reddy, the state president of Democratic Teachers Federation (DTF), demanded the government for suspension of contributory pension scheme (CPS) and continue with the old pension scheme (OPS).

Following the call given by the state committee of Upadhyaya Sanghala Porata Committee, more than 1,000 members of government employees and teachers, led by Raghu Shankar Reddy, staged a dharna at the Collectorate here on Friday.

Speaking on the occasion, Reddy said that to get pension is the right of every government employee and not the mercy shown by the government on the government employees, who strive hard for better running of the administration.

In the name of reforms and globalisation, the government was trying to privatise the pension system by introducing CPS, which may affect every government employee and their family members, who depend on them, he alleged.

“It is not correct to announce that the government will issue the pensions depending on the profits they derive after investing the pension money in the share markets. By doing so, the government is trying to deceive all the government employees,” he criticised.

Share market is a big gambling and no one can estimate when the market goes up and when it goes down. By investing the employees’ pension money in such business, the government is playing with the lives of as many as 1.19 lakh government employees present in the Telangana State, he pointed out.

He demanded that the government must suspend the CPS system immediately and continue with the old pension scheme only, otherwise all the employees across the State would intensify the agitation and will teach a fitting lesson to the government, he warned.

DTF former president Narayana Reddy, UTS Narayana, Narasimha Rao, Ashok, Kumara Swamy, TOTF Chandraiah, CPM district secretary Mukunda Reddy, Tirupathi, PSHMA state leader Shyam Sundar Reddy and Subash were present along with others.