Leaders of the AP United Teachers’ Federation on Saturday took strong exception to the “pressure being exerted by the police and officials of the Education Department on teachers to prevent them from participating in the proposed protest on September 1 in support of the demand for repeal of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and restoration of the old pension scheme.
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In a statement, the federation president N. Venkateswarlu and general secretary K.S.S. Prasad said teachers were being given notices with a warning against participating in the protest in Vijayawada. Some of them were threatened that they would be made to pay a fine of Rs. 2 lakh while personal vehicles (motorcycles and cars) of a few others had been taken away from them, they alleged.
They said in view of the protest, the department officials had issued a G.O. asking teachers not to avail themselves of leave in the next 10 days.
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The leaders said the government employees and teachers should jointly fight for the restoration of the old pension system, as promised by the Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at the time of the elections.
They said the Chief Minister himself had admitted that CPS was detrimental to the interests of the employees and had offered a fresh option of “Guaranteed Pension Scheme” (GPS) which was equally bad. They called upon teachers from across the State to participate in the proposed protest on September 1 and make it a grand success.
Deeksha by APTF
Meanwhile, the 100-day protest launched by the leaders of the Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation (APTF) entered the 10th day on Saturday.
Besides repeal of CPS and G.O. 117 on rationalisation of teachers, the federation is demanding withdrawal of the proposed school restructuring programme, continuation of both Telugu and English mediums of instruction in schools, dropping the new attendance system based on face recognition app and immediate steps to fill the vacant teacher posts among other things.