Pensioners from various associations staged a protest demanding over a charter of demands in front of the Union Office near here on Saturday.
The protest was led by district organiser S. M. Jayaseelan, in which members of Tamil Nadu Government Pensioner’s Association, Retired School College Teachers' Welfare Association and Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Retired Employees' Welfare Association took part in the protest.
Their demands included restoring the Old Pension Scheme and scrapping the New Pension Scheme. They raised slogans against the move to privatise Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), power distribution and Postal Department.
The protestors also urged the Union and State to better the universal social security pensions and schemes. They also demanded the State to disburse retirement benefits – such as pension, gratuity amount, provident fund and leave pay – to retired TNSTC employees without delay as well as settling dearness allowance (DA) arrears to the pensioners that has been pending for 80 months. They were stopped in 2015, they said.
TNGPA district secretary M.L. Kesavan, RTWA district secretary S. Amalraj and others were present.
