CHENNAI: PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Thursday accused the DMK government of "betraying" government employees and guest lecturers by failing to implement the assured pension scheme and delaying the announced salary hike.
In a statement, Anbumani said the State government had declared that the Tamil Nadu Assured Pension Scheme would come into effect from January 1, but even after three months, it had not been implemented. He pointed out that thousands of government employees had retired by the end of March, yet eligible beneficiaries had not received orders for the assured pension.
Recalling the government's announcements, he said Chief Minister MK Stalin had, on January 3, promised to scrap the New Pension Scheme (NPS) introduced in 2003 and replace it with OPS, followed by a Government Order on January 10. Despite this, the scheme remained only an announcement, he alleged.
Anbumani also criticised the delay in implementing the pay hike for guest lecturers. While the government had announced on February 26 that their salaries would be increased from Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000, the revised pay for February and March had not been disbursed, he said, terming it a "deception."
He alleged that there were no valid reasons for the delays and accused the DMK of deliberately misleading employees, teachers and lecturers. "The DMK government is failing to implement the promises," he said, adding that people across sectors had been let down.
Warning of political consequences, Anbumani said the people of Tamil Nadu and government employees would neither forget nor forgive these "betrayals" and would deliver a decisive verdict against the ruling DMK party in the upcoming Assembly elections.