CITU stages protest over 27-Day transport workers’ stir

CHENNAI: The Central Chennai district unit of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Saturday organised a protest in front of Raja Rathinam Stadium, Egmore, urging the State government to resolve the ongoing 27-day agitation of transport corporation employees and retired staff.

CITU State president A. Soundararajan, who led the demonstration, said the sit-in protests across 22 locations in Tamil Nadu were not for fresh wage demands but to secure long-pending arrears and retirement benefits. He urged the government to announce a comprehensive settlement before Deepavali to bring relief to serving workers and pensioners.

The demands include immediate disbursal of wage settlement arrears, clearance of retirement benefits pending for over two years, restoration of the old pension scheme for employees who joined after 2003, release of the long-delayed fifth step pension increment, provision of medical insurance for retirees and settlement of compassionate appointment claims.

Soundararajan criticised Transport Minister SS Sivasankar’s statement that Rs 1,100 crore had been allocated for retirement benefits, pointing out that the dues exceed Rs 2,000 crore. He said the delay had caused severe financial loss to pensioners, citing the sharp rise in gold and property prices over the past two years.

He warned that the protest would continue unless the government set a firm time frame to meet all demands.

Earlier, Sivasankar told reporters recently that discussions with the union were underway and that funds for retirees were being expedited, appealing to the federation to call off the agitation during the festive season when public transport demand is high.