Parties urge state to release arrested staff

Talking to reporters after meeting the arrested government employees pm Tuesday, Stalin condemned the forcible eviction of the agitators who resorted to road roko and said the Chief Minister or his ministers should have invited the employees to the negotiation table as soon as they announced the agitation. He asked the ruling AIADMK to parley and redress the grievances of employees who were forced to agitate. 

Describing the statement released by an AIADMK Minister regarding the salaries of employees as ‘egotistic’, the DMK working president said the ruling dispensation only wants to stay in power and he does not even consider that a government exists in the state. Later in the day, an all party meeting of Opposition parties led by the DMK at Anna Arivalaym adopted a resolution condemning the government’s handling of the road roko staged by government employees, precisely, JACTTO-GEO members. 

The resolution asked the government to release the arrested union members and  find an amicable solution through  negotiation. Meanwhile, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran charged the state government with suppressing the protests of government employees and teachers. 

Recalling that former chief minister J Jayalalithaa formed an experts committee in 2016 to look into the demands of government employees to go back to the old pension scheme, Dhinakaran said the present government had ignored the demands and exhibiting a complacent attitude. 

The employees had been demanding for a long time the removal of discrepancies in payments and pay the arrears amount in salary pending for the last 21 months. They had announced agitations since their demands had not been met and arresting them in police stations and toll gates is an uncivil act, he said. The state government should have held talks with the government employees and teachers, he added.