Mumbai: State government employees as well as teachers and non-teaching staff have given a call of strike from March 14 demanding the implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Vishwas Katkar, leader of the central body of the State Government Employee Union, served this notice to the government on Friday. This issue is now going to get political centreship in the state.
The government has cancelled the OPS for its employees from 2005. State is now implementing a new pension scheme. The employee unions have been asking to implement the OPS again in the state for the last 17 years. As the issue is now getting hotter in state as well as national discourse, employee unions have now taken an aggressive stand.
Necessary notice given to state govt
The meeting of government and semi-government employees unions took place in Mumbai on February 9. A similar meeting of teachers and non-teaching staff took place on February 12 in Nasik. It has been decided in both the meetings that strike will be called from March 14. So the necessary prior notice as per the rule is given to the government.
The strike timing will be of financial year-end as well as of exams at various levels. In such times, the government won't be able to afford the major chunk of bureaucracy going to strike. Recently, Chief Minister Shinde has assured the school teachers that the government is aware of the demand of OPS. "We are checking legal, technical and financial sides of the demand and the decision which would be agreed to all be taken," CM Shinde had said a week back in Sindhudurg.
OPS is becoming a serious political issue in recent times. The Congress party is demanding it everywhere. It has implemented the scheme in Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan states where it has a government.
