Allies turn heat on govt over poll promises, including pension scheme

CHENNAI: Allies of the ruling DMK on Tuesday piled up pressure on the treasury benches in the State Assembly to revive the Old Pension Scheme for government employees.

Participating in the debate on the State Budget 2025-26 in the Assembly, CPM MLA from Gandarvakottai M Chinnadurai asked the TN government to expedite the implementation of Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and revival of Earned Leave surrender for all government employees. "The people believe that the State government must find constructive ways to resolve the grievances of the employees, instead of using police personnel to stop protesting staff," Chinnadurai said, urging the TN government to scrap the GO enabling outsourcing of government jobs. He urged the DMK government to fill staff vacancies, which is seeing an uptick.

As if that were not enough, the Marxist MP said that the people are confident that the DMK regime would fulfill the promises it made ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls. Chinnadurai also urged the State government to initiate strict action and raise awareness to prevent sexual abuse in schools.

Joining the chorus, CPI legislator Thalli Ramachandran said that the State government must implement the revival of the Surrender of Earned Leave and Old Pension Scheme this year. Ramachandran also asked the DMK government to implement the recommendations of the Justice Chandru committee to improve schools. Ramachandran also asked the government to inform the House of the kind of action initiated over the Justice Aruna Jagadeeshan and Justice Arumugasamy Commission recommendations that probed the anti-Sterlite protest shootout in Thoothukudi and death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa respectively.