As promised, the government employees took to streets on Wednesday across the state against YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s “betrayal” on the issue of annulling the contributory pension scheme. The protests were organied at all district an, town and mandal level with thousands of teachers taking part in the joint protest programme organised by Federation of AP Teachers Organisations and AP CPS Employees Association.
The protests were backed by the TDP, Jana Sena and the CPI. This perhaps is the first large-scale protest against the YS Jagan Government after it came to power. The protests would continue for one month in various forms.. The anger and frustration of the government employees were clearly noticeable as the attendance was huge despite the incessant rain. MLCs Sheikh Saab ji, Raghuvarma, Kathinarasimha Reddy, I Venktateswaa Rao, and KS Lakshmana Rao were present.
The employees said that Jagan had given the assurance to replace the Contributory Pension Scheme with the Old Pension Scheme for over 100 times during his Praja Sankalpa Yatra, but did nothing to keep his word even after two-and-a-half years of his government. The protests in places like Guntur, Eluru, Vizag, Kadapa, East Godavari, Kurnool and other places were hugely successful. Significantly, over 4000 employees mached through the streets of Kadapa, the home district of chief minister YS Jagan.
Reports of the meeting were received from Nellore, Vijayawada, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, Chittoor and Ongole also. Several unions have joined the agitation. The compensatory pension scheme has been introduced in 2004 and as many as 1.94 lakh employees are said to have been made a part of this scheme. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is now finding himself on a sticky wicket on this issue as he cannot afford to antagonise the government employees, but cannot even antagonise the Modi government, which is fully backing the scheme.