MP govt increases retirement age of state govt employees, jobless youth calls it cheating
New Delhi : In a press conference held today, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced the increase of retirement age of state government employees to 62 years from the current 60 years.
He made this official announcement while speaking to reporters in Bhopal. Sources believe that there are about 5 lakh regular government employees in the state.
The opposition Congress, accused the government of “deceiving” the state’s unemployment of youth by increasing the retirement age and demanded that such youth be given a “berozgari bhatta” (unemployment allowance).
While replying to a question on the Supreme Court’s order about the promotion of state govt employees, Mr. Chouhan said, “Several state government employees are not able to get promotion due to the apex court’s order in a case related to ‘reservation in promotion’ pending with the SC. We will not allow any employee to retire without him getting his due promotion. This is why we have decided to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62 years.”
Also, the Madhya Pradesh government had made a provision for reservation for SC/ST employees in promotion, which was set apart by the state high court.
The state’s appeal against the order is pending in the Supreme Court with the latter ordering a status quo. This, officials said, has ‘kept on hold’ the promotions of state government employees.
The chief minister believes that Supreme Court would take a decision on the matter within next two years.
Attacking the Chouhan government, the opposition Congress said that the decision was not going to help employees in the state.
“This decision is not going to benefit employees. On the contrary, this would deprive younger officials and employees from getting a promotion. The CM should now announce an unemployment allowance of Rs 2,000 per month to jobless educated youth of the state,” said Ajay Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.
He added that the state government should speak about the problems of contract employees, who are performing protests.
Meanwhile, the’ Berojgar Sena’, a group of the educated unemployed has opposed the government’s decision and calls it “cheating”.
“Chouhan has deceived 1.5-crore educated unemployed youth of Madhya Pradesh by increasing the retirement age of state government employees. This decision will harm the BJP. We will tour the entire state to apprise the youth about this. We will also take legal recourse,” said Akshay Hunka, the outfit’s chief.
