Amid reports that the government is considering a proposal to reduce the retirement age of central government employees, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh has clarified that there is no such move. Central government staff retires at the age of 60 while reports had claimed that the governments are planning to reduce it to 50.
“There is no such move to reduce the retirement age nor (there) has been such a proposal discussed or contemplated at any level in the government,” Singh said blaming certain motivating elements for planting such disinformation time and again in a section of media over the last few days and attributing it to the government sources or the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
He said each time a prompt rebuttal is sought to be made in order to clear the confusion in the minds of stakeholders.
Considering the constraints of the lockdown, he recalled that DOPT had postponed the last date for filing of the Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) by the government officials.
Singh said it was unfortunate that at a time the country is going through the coronavirus crisis, there are certain elements and vested interests which try to underplay all the good works done by the government by planting such media stories.
At the same time, he referred to the UPSC’s decision to reschedule the dates of the IAS/Civil Services interview/personality test and also announced that the Civil Services Preliminary Test will be done after May 3. Similarly, on the same line, SSC has also postponed its process of recruitment.
As for the Department of Personnel in the Ministry of Personnel, Dr. Singh said that last week there was fake news that the government had decided to impose a 30% reduction in the pension and discontinue pensions for those who are above the age of 80. However, contrary to this, the truth is that on the 31st of March there was not a single pensioner whose pension did not deposit in his account.
