The move to raise the retirement age of Punjab government employees from 58 to 60 gained momentum, with state chief parliamentary secretary Harish Rai Dhanda writing a note to chief minister Prakash Singh Badal, requesting that the government should implement a promise it had made in its manifesto. Dhanda made a strong case for raising the retirement age saying that a number of states have already implemented it.
In fact, agitated state government employees have formed a joint action committee consisting of 14 state employees? organisations, demanding that the age limit should be upped with retrospective effect from the date the present government took over the reigns of the state.
The Punjab Secretariat Service Officers Association also rues that the government had failed to keep its promise despite assurances by Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal and finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal.
Significantly, at least 10 ministers?including health minister, Laxmi Kanta Chawla, technical education minister, Tikshan Sud, industry minister, Manoranjan Kalia, public works department minister, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, and social welfare minister, Swarna Ram, among others?have sent separate notes to the Punjab chief minister, favouring this move.
Indications are that finance secretary of Punjab too had suggested that there was a need to raise the retirement age of state government employees in view of poor fiscal state of the state. The raise can save about Rs 1,774 crore, enough to take care of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. A proposal in this regard is likely to come up before the state cabinet soon.
It is to be noted that neighbouring Haryana was the first state in the country to earmark Rs 1,550 crore in its Budget 2008-09 to implement the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.
It may be recalled that raising of retirement age from 58 to 60 was a promise that the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal had made in its manifesto.
With the party president Sukhbir Singh Badal taking over as deputy chief minister of the state, employees are hoping that his government would honour its promise.