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Tamil Nadu Government Rural Development Department Associations’ Federation staged a demonstration in Thoothukudi on Wednesday, pressing for their 16-point charter of demands, drawing participation of employees from various sections of the department. The demonstration was conducted near Chidambaranagar bus stop. Tamil Nadu State panchayat secretaries association’s general secretary V. Velmurugan participated as the special invitee and addressed the gathering. The protesters demanded that overhead tank operators be paid special consolidated honorarium of Rs 15,000 based on their years of service. They urged the government to include panchayat secretaries under the Tamil Nadu government pension scheme, and extend to them all benefits applicable to union office assistants. Further they insisted that computer assistants working in village panchayats be given guaranteed employment with salary of Rs 20,000 and implementation of yearly increment for computer assistants of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNRES). They also called deduction towards provident fund, government insurance scheme to be made available for them. They also demanded that the increase in salary of conservancy workers of village panchayat to Rs 10,000 and ensuring that their wages paid directly through the village panchayat. Panchayat secretaries, overhead tank operators, computer assistants and other staff members took part in the protest and raised slogans in support of their demands.
