Tamil Nadu: The JACTO-GEO Alliance has announced that it will go on an indefinite strike from January 6th, pressing 10-point demands, including the reinstatement of the old pension scheme.
Government employees and teachers are staging separate protests under the banner of JACTO-GEO, a federation of government employees and teachers’ unions. Their 10-point demands include abolishing the Contributory Pension Scheme for government employees and reinstating the old pension scheme, filling millions of vacant posts in government departments, addressing Pay Committee anomalies, and providing regular salaries to employees working on special pay, lump sum pay, and honorarium.
As part of this, a one-day symbolic strike was held on November 18th.
Following this, a consultative meeting of JACTO-GEO State Coordinators was held on Tuesday at the Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association office in Thiruvallikeni, Chennai. The meeting, headed by coordinators M. Bhaskaran, S. Prabhakaran, and Theodore Bhaskaran, discussed the next phase of the protest in detail.
After the meeting, State Coordinator Prabhakaran told reporters, “There will be a district-level campaign to press for the DMK’s fulfillment of its election promises, a hunger strike to restore power in the district capital on December 13th, and a strike preparatory conference in the district capital on December 27th. Consequently, we will go on an indefinite strike from January 6th,” he said.
DITOJAK Protest… Similarly, the Tamil Nadu Primary Education Teachers Joint Action Committee (DITOJAK) held a consultative meeting in Chennai on Tuesday. Following this, its coordinator, R. Das, told reporters that the government had not met their demands, which included the repeal of Government Order 243, which hinders the promotion of primary education teachers; the holding of a qualifying exam for in-service teachers; and eliminating the pay gap for secondary teachers. Therefore, a sit-in protest will be held in Chennai starting December 8th to press for the fulfillment of these demands. Thousands of teachers will participate, he said.
