Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur   

Employees’ stir hits functioning of offices

— Photo U. Subramanyam

Strength in numbers: Members of the JAC of employees taking out a rally in connection with the general strike in Kurnool on Tuesday.

ANANTAPUR: Functioning of the State and Central Government offices in the district was affected badly on Tuesday as various employees, teachers and workers associations went on a mass leave nationwide protesting the new pension policy proposed by the Centre. The employees took out a procession and held a protest meeting near Tower Clock circle.

They also staged rasta roko at the Saptagiri ircle. They alleged that the governments were conspiring to deny social security to the working class in the country by bringing changes in the pension policy.

Speaking at the protest meeting, leaders of the associations said as per the new pension policy the employees appointed after April 2004 would not get any pension.

The changes in the policy were aimed at removing social security to the working class in the country, they said. They also demanded protection of their right go on strike.

Chittoor: The one-day nationwide strike was successful in Chittoor. The members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) took out a two-wheeler rally from NGO Home to the offices in the town. The LIC, Postal and Income Tax employees’ associations expressed solidarity with the striking employees. The strike was called in protest against the Central and State Governments failure to solve the 17 demands presented to them in spite of representations several times.

KURNOOL: Non-gazetted employees of the Collectorate struck work here as part of the general strike. Various sections in the Collectorate wore a deserted look on account of the strike and the striking employees put up a dais across the main entrance and did not allow anyone into the complex.

The JAC leaders who addressed the rally came down heavily on the successive governments and said the present contributory pension scheme was meant for diverting money of the employees to the stock market.

Also, the leaders criticised the restrictions on the right to strike in the country. The working class secured the right after struggles for centuries and now the government, under pressure from the World Bank and IMF, planned to withdraw it, they alleged.

TIRUPATI: A majority of the employee unions representing the Central and State government struck work following a nation-wide call to express protest against the Government’s ‘anti-employee’ policies.

Several employees of Postal, BSNL and Railways abstained from duty and took part in the agitation. Laying siege to the office under the auspices of National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) and Federation of National Postal Organisations (FNPO), the leaders blamed the Government for precipitating the issue and pushing them to a corner, that the Central and State government employees decided to raise a banner of revolt.

Seeking withdrawal of the new pension policy in vogue since 2004, the agitating staff also demanded that the Nataraja Murthy panel be dispensed with, as it could harm the interests of rural postal employees. The JAC chairman B. Yellappa and vice-chairman S. Subramanyam also wanted payment of interim relief to all the Central government employees and said that pressure would be built on the Wage Board for extracting their just demands.

State government employees, with the sole exception of the Revenue staff who are involved in relief in rehabilitation work post-floods, also took part in the agitation.

The associations warned the government of intensifying their stir in future, if the anti-employee policies were not amended.

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