Retired teachers seek pension benefits entitled to them

A set of teachers who retired between 1986 and 1988 were denied a higher Career Advancement Scheme fixation as the government introduced changes

A section of retired teachers is struggling to help a group of teachers, now aged over 90, get pension benefits entitled to them. Nearly a dozen such teachers have been denied the benefits. On Thursday, the Tamil Nadu Retired College Teachers’ Association represented their grievances to the Director of College Education.

The teachers said a batch that retired between 1986 and 1988 was denied the normal pension revision. These teachers were affected as the State government amended the nomenclature for the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS). “In 1986, the State government introduced a new nomenclature called LSG (Lecturer Selection Grade). The government announced that only those who had completed three years of service as a LSG would be eligible for pay band 4, a higher fixation of CAS,” said R. Lawrence, secretary of the association.

All those who retired in the intervening three years since 1986 were affected as they could not complete the required three years of service. As a result, they were denied the higher grade fixation. The name change, however, did not affect those who had retired prior to 1986 or those who retired after 1988.

“The LSG was introduced on January 1, 1986, and it affected around 150 teachers. Many of them have passed on, and there are only 12 of them now. They are all nonagenarians. We are demanding that the government implement the order it passed in 2015 and help them,” Mr. Lawrence added.