Unions push for key reforms, want pending issues solved

Leaders of various associations who attended the Andhra Pradesh Civil Services Joint Staff Council meeting held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary Vijayanand, have put forth their common demands

They included constitution of the 12th Pay Revision Commission (PRC), sanction of 30% Interim Relief (IR), payment of three pending Dearness Allowances (DAs), clearance of 11th PRC DA arrears, settlement of all pending gratuity, commutation, and earned leave encashment dues to pensioners.

The leaders also demanded the implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for employees, teachers, and police personnel recruited after 2004, in line with Government of India Memo No. 57, immediate appointments of family members of deceased Panchayat Raj teachers on compassionate grounds, abolition of the “regressive” Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and restoration of the Old Pension Scheme, enhancement of the retirement age from 60 to 62 years for employees of residential schools, societies, and public sector undertakings, special measures to ensure medical treatment under the Employees’ Health Scheme (EHS) cards and increase of medical reimbursement limit from ₹2 lakh to ₹5 lakh.

The union leaders also insisted on a follow-up meeting to resolve these issues.

Mr. Vijayanand said of the 230 issues raised earlier, 115 had been resolved, 114 remained unresolved, while one was under process of being uploaded.

Teachers’ association concerns

Leaders of the Andhra Pradesh Teachers Federation have sought to form a committee to frame unified service rules. Other issues highlighted include promotions for junior lecturers, steps to exempt blind and severely disabled teachers from facial recognition attendance, enhancement of retirement age to 62 years for employees of residential schools, societies, and public sector institutions and extension of Minimum Time Scale (MTS) benefits to the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya teachers.

Special Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and Secretaries of various departments, along with representatives of 14 employees’ and teachers’ associations, participated in the meeting.