MUMBAI: Government and semi-government employees in Maharashtra, including teachers, non-teaching staff and hospital employees, will continue their strike, as demands such as the implementation of the Revised National Pension Scheme (RNPS) and other issues remained unresolved in a meeting between chief secretary Rajesh Aggarwal and union leaders.
The indefinite strike, which began on April 21, was called for several issues. Besides the RNPS, employees are demanding the filling of vacant posts, a cashless medical insurance scheme of ₹5 lakh, increase of the retirement age from 58 years to 60 and a lifting of the ban on the recruitment of Class 4 employees.
On the second day of the strike, chief secretary Rajesh Aggarwal invited leaders of the Coordination Committee for Government, Semi-Government, Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff for a discussion. Ashok Dagade, the president of the committee, and coordinator Vishwas Katkar attended the meeting along with others.
After listening to the union’s demands, Aggarwal said the government would look into their demands and requested the leaders of the coordination committee to end the strike. However, they told him that the strike would continue until chief minister Devendra Fadnavis initiated the process to implement the demands.
“The chief secretary requested us to end the strike, assuring us that he would discuss our demands with Fadnavis, and a favourable decision would be taken,” Dagade told HT. “But we told him that since only the CM could take a decision, he needed to meet our committee to discuss the demands. We also told him that after receiving the details of the government’s favourable decision, we would discuss it in our meeting and take a decision about ending the strike by tomorrow evening.”