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Liveblog - Maharashtra Braces for Administrative Shutdown as 1.7 Million Workers Call for Indefinite Strike

News Desk - One

State-wide agitation set for April 21 over pension delays and unresolved staffing grievances.

MUMBAI — Administrative services across Maharashtra are facing a potential total collapse as approximately 1.7 million government and semi-government employees have announced an indefinite strike beginning April 21, 2026,. The massive coalition, which includes state secretariat staff, teachers, and municipal workers, is protesting a perceived “lack of sensitivity” from the state government regarding long-pending demands, most notably the stalled rollout of a revised pension scheme.

The proposed strike, organized by the Coordination Committee of Government, Semi-Government, Teaching, and Non-Teaching Employees, represents a broad cross-section of the state’s workforce. According to Convenor Vishwas Katkar, the participants will include 5.5 lakh Class III and Class IV state government employees from departments such as the state secretariat and sales tax. They will be joined by 7 lakh teachers and non-teaching staff from Zilla Parishad and Nagar Parishad schools, as well as 3.5 lakh semi-government workers from Zilla Parishads. Staff from municipal councils and the health and education sectors are also expected to join the agitation. The primary catalyst for this industrial action is the administrative delay surrounding the National Pension Scheme (NPS),. While the Maharashtra government formally approved a revised pension scheme aligned with the Central government’s model—effective from March 1, 2024—unions argue that no official notification detailing the rules, procedures, or conditions has been issued in the two years since,.

This lack of formal guidelines has created significant financial hardship for employees who retired after the effective date, as many are currently facing financial uncertainty without provisional pension benefits,. Furthermore, teachers in partially aided schools appointed before November 2005 are demanding to be covered under the Old Pension Scheme of 1982. The unions’ memorandum to the government outlines a wide range of unresolved grievances beyond retirement benefits. Key among these is the demand to increase the retirement age to 60 years, a standard already adopted by 26 other Indian states,.

The committee also highlighted a growing crisis in the state’s workforce management, including:

  • Chronic Vacancies: The slow pace of filling vacant posts has placed an unsustainable workload on existing staff.
  • Contractual Regularization: Unions are calling for the regularization of contractual workers who have served in sanctioned posts for up to a decade.
  • Recruitment Policies: The government’s moratorium on recruiting Class IV employees and drivers has been criticized as “impractical”.
  • Career Progression: Staff are seeking the implementation of the ’10:20:30′ assured career progression scheme for both teaching and non-teaching personnel.

The decision to move forward with a strike follows years of frustration. Mr. Katkar noted that while previous meetings were held with the former administration under Eknath Shinde, and several demands were reportedly agreed upon, concrete action has failed to materialize,. The coordination committee claims to have held seven meetings to draw the government’s attention to these issues, yet they feel their concerns remain unaddressed.

The unions have formally served a strike notice to the state government, warning that the April 21 shutdown will proceed unless “concrete decisions” are made immediately. To prevent future deadlocks, the committee has proposed establishing a periodic dialogue forum at the Chief Minister’s level to address sector-specific concerns, though the government has yet to respond to this suggestion.

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