THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the pro-LDF teachers and employees organisations have unanimously demanded the raising of the pension age, DYFI activists tried to disrupt the meeting called by the cabinet sub-committee to discuss the issue on Thursday.The service organisations owing allegiance to both the LDF and UDF, are now unanimous in their demand for raising the pension age of government employees.Both pro-LDF and pro-UDF service organisations are also unanimous in their stand that the present system of unification of retirement date should be done away with. They wanted the State Government to follow the old system of retirement in the respective month on the basis of age.Some UDF organisations even wanted to fix the pension age at 60. They said that in case this was not possible, it should be fixed at least at 58 years. The DYFI activists who assembled in front of the Secretariat at 2 pm., one hour before the meeting, blocked traffic along the road and pelted stones. Police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the agitators.Around 3 p.m. when the meeting was scheduled to start, a few DYFI activists jumped the fence of the Secretariat. The police had a tough time in controlling the agitators. One of the agitators even reached near the front door of the Durbar hall and waved flags. Police eventually arrested and removed the agitators. P Sreeramakrishnan and T V Rajesh, both MLAs, were among those who participated in the strike.Finance Minister K M Mani told the representatives of the service and teachers organisations at the meeting that the cabinet would take a final decision on raising the pension age soon. However, he did not specify the exact pension age that the government was planning to fix.The meeting decided to present a draft of the proposed Right to Services Act before service and teachers organisations for their consideration.Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty, Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed and Civil Supplies Minister T M Jacob also attended the meeting.
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