Retired teachers hold rally demanding VI Pay benefits
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
PORVORIM, JULY 19
Hundreds of former teachers who were compelled to retire at the age of 58 due to reduction in retirement age from 60 to 58 staged a protest rally in Porvorim on Monday.
The rally commenced from Teen building and proceeded towards the Secretariat, but it was stopped by police near the Sanjay School.
Since the teachers defied orders and began proceeding towards the Secretariat, Police arrested 226 agitators. They were, however, released following an order of the Bardez Deputy Collector Dashrath Redkar.
Speaking to reporters, President of Discriminated Teachers Forum Neves Anthony Rebello stated due to reduction of the age limit from 60 to 58 years, retired teachers lost two years increment as a consequence of which they are drawing less pension.
“The government should pay us pension based on the VI Pay Commission. Teachers who have not completed 33 years of service are not getting full pension. If the VI Pay Commission is made applicable to us, we will get full pension,” said Rebello.
“If the pension benefits are extended to the prematurely retired teachers based on the VI Pay Commission, the additional burden on the government exchequer will be only Rs 8 crore,” said Rebello.
He informed that they had started their agitation since August 2009. “We organized rallies and resorted to hunger strikes to draw the government’s attention to our demand, but in vain,” he said.
“Chief Minister Digamber Kamat had assured us that our grievances would be redressed within one month. We had served a notice to both the chief minister and Education Minister Atanasio Monserratte to inform the Discriminated Teachers Forum whether the government has any plans to solve the genuine grievances of the prematurely retired teachers before the commencement of the Assembly Session, so that we could prevent the rally.”
“But there was no reply from the government, which is why we have organized this rally. We will continue to fight till our demands are met,” said Rebello.
