Yet another round of talks held between Buggana Rajendranath Reddy and Botcha Satyanarayana, Ministers of Finance and Education respectively, and representatives of two associations — Andhra Pradesh CPS Udyogula Sangham (AP CPSUS) and AP CPS Employees’ Association, on Tuesday remained inconclusive.
“We were invited for talks on the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), but the two Ministers did not make any reference to it and, instead, tried to persuade us to accept the Guaranteed Pension Scheme (GPS), designed by the State government,” said C.M. Das, State president of CPSUS.
He said the government was not ready to restore the OPS, and had ruled out any possibility of its implementation.
“They say that the GPS will be beneficial to the employees. How do we trust them when they are not able to properly implement the present system. In the last seven months, a pending amount of nearly ₹900 crore, which was to be deposited in the National Securities Depositories Limited (NSDL), has not been done,” he said, adding that the GPS being offered was nothing but “old wine in a new bottle.”
He said the Ministers offered concessions if the associations were ready to accept GPS.
“We told them that we will forfeit a few benefits if the government restores the old pension scheme,” he said, informing that the association leaders walked out, rejecting the government offer.
Meanwhile, the government has invited representatives of 16 employees’ associations for official talks on the CPS, scheduled to be held at 4 p.m. on September 7 (Wednesday).
“We have decided against participating in the talks as the government is most likely to officially announce implementation of the GPS,” said Mr. Das.
