After the rout in the Lok Sabha polls and with an eye on the Assembly polls in the State, the Jammu and Kashmir government announced a major populist measure on Tuesday by hiking the retirement age of its 4.5 lakh work force from 58 to 60 years.
The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was held on Tuesday and it approved hike in retirement age.
It was one of the long pending demands of the state government employees.
“The order to increase the retirement age from 58 to 60 will come into effect from June 1, 2014,” Finance Minister Abdur Rahim Rather flanked by the National Conference ministers told reporters here.
He said the upper age limit for youth to obtain government jobs has been increased by three years. “The upper age limit has been increased from 37 to 40 years.”
The Finance Minister said there would be no additional financial implications on the state exchequer due to increase in retirement age from 58 to 60.
“The State’s wage bill is `18,385 crores. Out of that, `14,465 crores is employees’ salary bill and `3,920 cr is pension bill,” Rather said.
Earlier, during interaction with government employees’ representatives in Civil Secretariat here, Omar said he has already given orders for withdrawal of dies-non against agitating employees.
Defending the decision to increase retirement age of employees, he said, “It will have no effect on the recruitment of youth as the government will continue the recruitment process to fill up the vacant posts in different departments”.
Omar also constituted a committee comprising Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Secretary General Administration Department to study all other demands of the employees outside the ambit of Finance Department for finalising and reporting with its recommendations in one month.
He also fixed a deadline of one month for the Finance Department to finalise the recommendations on casual employees.
This is the second major decision taken by the Omar Abdullah government after scrapping controversial employment policy following rout of the National Conference, Congress coalition candidates in all six parliamentary seats in the State.
The coalition candidates could not win a single seat while the BJP and PDP won three parliamentary seats each.
Meanwhile, Congress leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand addressed a separate press conference and claimed credit for increase in retirement age from 58 to 60 years.
Flanked by Congress ministers, Tara Chand told reporters that senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad during his tenure as J&K Chief Minister had repeatedly stated that retirement age of employees would be increased.
In a related development, Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief and MP Saif-ud-Din Soz said he always supported the cause of government employees.
Source:http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Omar-Hikes-Retirement-Age-of-Govt-Staff-from-58-to-60/2014/06/05/article2263238.ece
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