Chandigarh: A Cabinet sub-committee, constituted by the state government to study modalities for raising the retirement age from 58 to 60 years, will submit its final report to the government on July 18.
An indication to this effect was given by committee chairman and Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu here today. “The draft report prepared by the committee at its last meeting last month would be given a final shape on July 18, following which the report would be submitted to the state government for taking a final decision,” said Capt Abhimanyu.
Earlier, the three-member Cabinet sub-committee had held a series of meeting to explore the possibilities of raising the retirement age from 58 to 60 years.
During earlier deliberations, several issues, including a two-year extension for employees of the department facing acute staff shortage, limiting the term of the non-IAS departmental heads and selection norms for filling Class IV posts, have been discussed.
With creation of new job opportunities for the youth being part of its election manifesto, the BJP government seemed to be wary of across-the-board increase in the retirement age. In fact, the Haryana Government had already asked the Haryana Public Service Commission and the Haryana Staff Service Commission to fill over 50,000 vacancies.
The committee has already done its homework by asking the Chief Secretary to submit a report on the number of vacancies, the number of employees retiring by the year-end and those re-employed.
With an eye on the 2014 Assembly elections, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had raised the retirement age to 60. However, when the BJP government, led by Manohar Lal Khattar, came to power after the Assembly elections, it reversed the Congress government’s decision. But the BJP government took a U-turn in February and set up a sub-committee to study the issue afresh.