Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Retired transport employees stage protest

— Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

ON WAR PATH: Retired employees of State Transport Corporations staging a protest on Pallavan Salai on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: Close to 300 retired employees of State Transport Corporations and their legal heirs participated in a protest held with demands for various retirement benefits, on Pallavan Salai here on Wednesday.

Their main demand was that the State government should take responsibility for giving pension to the retired employees.

K. Karsan, general secretary, Transport Corporations Retired Employees Welfare Association, said that some 30,000 retired transport employees, including those of SETCs, had not been receiving their pension for a long time. He said that cases which were filed in the High Court by retired employees against non-payment of pension had been pending for several years and that several of the employees had even died without seeing or getting justice.

Mr. Karsan said there was two years’ delay in accessing or utilising post retirement benefit schemes for retired employees.

Another complaint was that, though dearness allowance had increased for current employees, it was not revised for retired employees.

He said that as per a 2003 Supreme Court order, State transport corporation employees were to be given pension for their service rendered in the transport department.

Their other demands included payment of arrears of commutation pension immediately and free passes to be issued to the widows of transport corporation employees.

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