The Andhra Pradesh government employees have rejected the state government invitation for talks on pension scheme. The employees said that they have already told the government that they would not come for talks on a new pension proposed by the government.

“We went for talks with the government only to debate on the contributory pension scheme (CPS) and not the GPS proposed by the government,” said the employees’ union leader Mariadas. He said that they had earlier accepted the government invitation only hoping that the government would talk about the CPS.

He also said that they have categorically told the minister that they are not ready for talks on the GPS and would not come for talks anymore if the government intended to talk only about the GPS. He said that the government employees were opposing the CPS.

The government had asked the employees to accept the GPS, promising some changes to it. However, the employees told the government that they would consider any invitation for talks only if the government is ready to debate on the CPS.

Meanwhile, CPS employees’ union leaders said that the police were harassing the government employees following their call for agitation. Union leader Ravikumar said that the police were harassing the government employees, particularly those who were openly agitating against the CPS. He wanted the government to withdraw cases filed against the employees and stop harassment by the police.

Minister for Education, Botsa Satyanarayana, extended an invitation to the employees to come for discussion across the table. He said any issue could be resolved through a dialogue and wondered why the employees were refusing to come for talks.

There is a stalemate between the government employees and the state government over the CPS. The employees have given a call to lay siege to the chief minister’s office to mount pressure on the government to withdraw the CPS. It is to be seen how the government would handle the situation and resolve the issue.