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| Retirement age increased by 2 years; NC, Cong Ministers address separate pressers | | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, June 3: National Conference-Congress coalition Government in the state is in a damage control mode these days and they are taking steps aimed to 'woo' the electorate with the Assembly elections just few months away.
The state Government today virtually succumbed to the pressure exerted by the Government employees and decided to increase the retirement age of the Government employees from 58 years to 60 years. This is despite the fact that the state Government had in the recent past said that it does not have funds to increase the retirement age.
The decision to increase the retirement age was taken in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah at the Civil Secretariat today. The announcement was a mere formality since Omar had given his nod to increasing the retirement age during his meeting with the employee leaders earlier in the day.
Importantly the Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir had asked the state Government not to increase the retirement age for the time being. Mir had said that the decision should be left to the new state Government in the state and there is no need to jump the gun in this regard at this point of time.
At the same both National Conference and Congress yet again took the credit separately. Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand addressed media persons at the culmination of Cabinet meeting. Later on a separate press conference was addressed by National Conference Ministers, Abdul Rahim Rather, Ali Mohammad Sagar and Chaudhary Mohammad Ramzan.
During the autumn session of the legislative Assembly here last year, Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather delivered an exhaustive speech in which he said that state Government had fulfilled most of the demands of Government employees. He left no stone unturned in defaming the employee leaders and accused them of keeping the people hostage for their 'petty' demands.
Rather had said that it would be difficult for the state Government to increase the retirement age since the same would lead to more unemployment in the state. Not only Rather, in fact the other Ministers including the Chief Minister had time and again said that demand of employees for increasing the retirement age is somewhat unjustified.
It would be in place to mention here that the state Government had reached an agreement with the leaders of Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) on September 15, 2011 under which maximum demands of Government employees was met. In the agreement it was written that demand for increasing the retirement age would be considered in due course of time.
However, later on the demand was kept in the back-burner by the Government and the Government employees were forced to carry out strikes in support of this demand. The Government employees under the banner of JCC carried out various protest programmes with their leaders being arrested many times by the police.
The state Government was forced to take the decision of increasing the retirement age following the debacle they suffered at the hands of People’s Democratic Party and Bharatiya Janta Party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The decision assumes significance since the Assembly elections are slated in the state for October-November this year.
Today's step is the second one after the recent decision to scrap the controversial job policy in the state. Leaders of both National Conference and Congress are expecting to cash in on these initiatives so that people vote for them in the upcoming Assembly elections. It remains to be seen how far these steps would help the coalition parties to regain the lost ground in the state.
In the meantime, the Government employees while hailing the Government decision to increase the retirement age said that why did the people at helm waste so much of time in taking the decision. The decision has been welcomed by JCC leaders Abdul Qayoom Wani, Mohammad Abbas, Peer Nisar Ahmad, Purshottam Sharma and Nazir Ahmad Moulvi. |
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