Madhya Pradesh to Raise Retirement Age for Govt Employees to 62 Years

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday announced that retirement age for government servants in the state would be raised to 62 years from the existing 60 years.

“No government servant would retire without getting promotion, and for this, the state government has decided to increase the retirement age to 62 years from existing 60 years,” he said during an event in Bhopal.

According to estimates, around 5.50 lakh government staffers are expected to be benefit from the move.

Replying to a question on the Supreme Court's order related to the promotion of state government employees. 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."

The state government had made a provision for reservation for SC/ST employees in promotion, which was set aside by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The state's appeal against the order is pending in the SC with the latter ordering a status quo.

This, officials said, has kept on hold promotions of state government employees. Chouhan expressed hope that SC would take a decision on it within next two years.

Attacking the government, the opposition Congress said the decision was not going to help employees. "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.

Replying to another question, CM Shivraj denied there was any incumbency despite 14 years of BJP rule in Madhya Pradesh. “Wherever I go, people embrace me with warmth and affection and I don’t see any anti-incumbency.” On the proposed introduction of Commissionerate system of police in Bhopal and Indore, Chouhan affirmed that the government was pondering over it ‘very seriously’.