Employees welcome extension of OPS benefits

Government employees who benefited from the State government’s decision to extend the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to a section of employees previously covered under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) participated in a thanksgiving meeting at the Swarna Bharathi Indoor Stadium in the city on Sunday, expressing gratitude to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

The programme organised under the aegis of the AP DSC Forum, the Noble Teachers’ Association, the PRTU, the APTF and other employees’ and teachers’ associations representing OPS beneficiaries in north Andhra, drew a large number of employees and their family members from the region. Employees poured milk over a portrait of the Chief Minister in a symbolic gesture of gratitude and raised slogans thanking the government for restoring pension benefits.

Government Whip in the Legislative Council Vepada Chiranjeevi Rao, TDP State president and Gajuwaka MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao, Visakhapatnam East MLA Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu, Visakhapatnam North MLA P. Vishnu Kumar Raju, and Graduates’ constituency MLCs Alapati Raja, Kancharla Srikanth and Perabathula Rajasekhar attended the programme.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Chiranjeevi Rao said the coalition government had provided financial security to nearly 11,000 families by extending the OPS to eligible employees. He said employees retire from service, but their families continue to depend on post-retirement financial support, making pension security an important welfare measure. He alleged that government employees had faced difficulties in receiving dearness allowance arrears and reimbursement of medical bills during the previous government’s tenure.

Mr. Chiranjeevi Rao said that the government had extended OPS, family pension and gratuity benefits to employees recruited under the 2004 notification who entered service later for technical reasons. He also credited the Chief Minister with raising teachers’ salaries on a par with those of revenue employees, and appealed to employees and teachers to work with the government for the State’s development.

Mr. Palla Srinivasa Rao said the coalition government remained committed to the welfare of employees and teachers. Mr. Vishnu Kumar Raju alleged that teachers had been humiliated during the previous government’s tenure by being deployed to regulate queues at liquor outlets. Mr. Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu said the government would support every measure benefiting employees. Representatives of various employees’ and teachers’ associations also addressed the gathering and thanked the State government for extending the pension benefits.