Govt move to raise retirement age likely to be delayed
Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s promise to increase the retirement age of state government is likely to be further delayed with the Covid-19 crisis as well as the ultimatums from unemployed youth.
For the past few days, speculation has been rife among government employees that the Chief Minister was likely to take a decision with regard to enhancing the superannuation age of employees from 58 to 60 years.
The employees said that Mr Rao is likely to make an announcement in this regard to give solace to the employees who faced a 50 per cent cut in their salaries. However, on Tuesday, the government announced payment of full salaries for this month.
During the 2018 Assembly elections, the Chief Minister had promised government employees that he would enhance their retirement age.
While this was pending, Mr Rao surprisingly decided in December last year to increase the retirement age of employees of the Telangana state road transport corporation. This raised the hopes of government employees but the
Coronavirus crisis followed soon afterwards.
Meanwhile, various associations of unemployed youth announced that they will oppose the enhancement of the age of superannuation of government employees.
BC welfare Associations president R. Krishnaiah, Osmania University Students and Unemployed Front chairperson Chanagani Dayakar and Telangana State Students and Unemployed Joint Action Committee chairperson K. Manavatha Roy said that they have made representations to the state government opposing this move.
Krishnaiah said that nearly 16 lakh unemployed and their parents have been opposing the enhancement of the retirement age of state staff. He said that they had written a letter to Mr Rao on Tuesday too in this regard.
He said up to 30,000 employees with salary ranging from `70,000 to `1.5 lakh per month will retire soon. With this huge amount, more new candidates can be recruited.
Krishnaiah said that they came to know that the young employees in the government service are also opposing the enhancement of the retirement age as it will hamper their promotions.