Condemning the delay in settlement of retirement benefits and dearness allowance (DA) arrears to retired government employees, pensioners of various government departments, including transport, staged a protest here on Thursday.
Led by P. Jeganathan, Zone president of Transport Employees’ Pensioners Welfare Association, members said that the State government had disbursed DA to pensioners of all government departments, except for 24 months that were pending. “But, retired transport department employees have not been paid their DA for 78 months since November 2015”, they said.
Members said that over 85,000 beneficiaries in the State are yet to receive their arrears and urged the government to release it immediately. While the minimum pension for the retired employees was ₹ 7,850 per person, it was ₹ 3,050 per person for a retired transport employee. “Discrepancies should be removed”, they added.
They said that the government refused to implement medical insurance scheme for pensioners or monthly medical assistance to the pensioners. During the 14th wage revision talks held on May 12 at Chennai, the grievances of the pensioners were not redressed causing disappointment, they said.
