Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 18: Setting aside all speculations, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today stated in the Rajya Sabha that there is no proposal under the consideration of Government of India to reduce the retirement age of its employees.
In reply to a question, Dr Jitendra Singh categorically made it clear that as of today, the retirement age of Government of India employees is 60 years and there is no such proposal to reduce it to 58 years. He further recalled that before 1997, the retirement age of Central Government employees used to be 58 years, but after that, on the basis of the recommendations of the 5th Central Pay Commission, the retirement age was increased to 60 years and it continues to be so.
In response to another question, referring to the recent decision of Haryana State Government to lower the retirement age of its employees from 60 years to 58 years, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the different State Governments have their own service rules, and conditions for their employees which fall in the respective State Governments domain. This, however, does not correlate with the service conditions laid down by the Government of India for the Central Government employees,he added.
To a question as to whether Government is considering to fix single (common) retirement age limit for all the State Government and Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) employees in the country, Dr Jitendra Singh said that there was no such proposal at present. Age of retirement for employees of State Government and PSU is decided by the respective State Governments or Boards of PSU depending on their requirement, he added.
Giving a detailed account of total wages and salaries bill of Central Government employees in each department of Government of India for financial years 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13, Dr Jitendra Singh stated that in the year 2012-13, for example, the highest bill was incurred for the Departments of Railways, Home Affairs and Defence, amounting to Rs 38,560.80 cr, Rs 25,113.14 cr and Rs 14,502.22 cr respectively, followed by other departments.
Pertinent to mention that in the last few weeks there has been a lot of speculation and rumour about the possibility of Government ordering reduction in the retirement age of its employees. This has caused widespread discomfiture among employees across the country and there have been queries pouring in to the Department of Personnel & Training (DOPT) from different States and deputations of various employees’ organizations have been coming to the Minister of DOPT to seek clarification.
While the DOPT has of late, time and again, reiterated that these speculations are baseless, there is also an opinion in a section of media that such rumours or stories may have been deliberately planted by certain vested interests with a political motive.
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