In a major disappointment to lakhs of employees in the State, the Manohar lal Khattar Government in Haryana is unlikely to give an across-the-board raise in the retirement age from 58 to 60.
Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu, who is also chairman of the Cabinet sub-committee, on Tuesday, ruled out an across-the-board raise in the retirement age from 58 to 60.
Capt. Abhimanyu while talking to the mediapersons after chairing the final meeting of cabinet sub-committee constituted regarding increasing the retirement age of employees said that the committee is of the view that it is not necessary to raise the retirement age in all departments.
The sub-committee has however decided to suggest a fixed tenure for Head of Departments in the State Government.
The Minister said “The retirement age can be raised in some departments, which are facing severe manpower shortage. The committee have studied various aspects involved in raising the retirement age and would soon submit a report to the Chief Minister Manohar lal in this regard.”
Accordingly, a list of departments where the retirement age of employees can be increased would be submitted to the Chief Minister, said he.
On being asked about such departments, the Minister said that the sub-committee would be as pragmatic as possible in finalization of this.
Elaborating, the Finance Minister said that information would be collected on those departments where work would suffer after the retirement of people or where there is no officer available through promotion. This would help in deciding if the retirement age should be raised for a particular post or in a particular department or should not be raised, added he.
Capt. Abhimanyu added that the sub-committee would also suggest the tenure of heads of department.
As per the details compiled by the sub-committee, the number of employees going to be retired in Elementary Education, Secondary Education, Police and Irrigation Departments in the year 2017 would be comparatively more. Also, there are about one lakh vacancies in different departments in the state and about 15,000 employees are retired every year which cause adverse impact on functioning of the departments.
The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Krishan Kumar Bedi and Chief Secretary DS Dhesi on Tuesday.
Another member of the cabinet sub-committee, Health Minister Anil Vij has not attended even a single meeting of the committee. The sub-committee was constituted in February to study the possibility of increasing the retirement age of government employees to 60 years from 58 years.
When asked about the absence of Minister Anil Vij from the meetings, Capt. Abhimanyu said that the Minister has been apprized about the deliberations and recommendations of the sub-committee.
Notably, the previous Congress led Haryana Government had raised the retirement age to 60, prior to the 2014 assembly polls. However, when the BJP Government led by Manohar lal Khattar, came to power, it had reversed the Congress Government’s decision.
Taking a U-turn on the decision later, the BJP led State Government constituted a sub-committee to study the retirement issue.
The State Government had already decided to increase the retirement age of doctors’ upto 65 years. The retirement age of group D employees, blind, physically challenged and Judicial Officers is 60 years. In addition, State Awardees in Education Department were also being allowed to continue till the age of 60 years in Haryana.