RETIREMENT AGE TO GO UP TO 62

                        Babus retirement age set to go up

The top two officials in the state administration, chief secretary, Mr S.V. Prasad, and the director-general of police, Mr K. Aravinda Rao, will benefit from the Centre’s decision to set the retirement age for civil servants at 62 years from the present 60 years. Mr Aravinda Rao was due to retire in June and the chief secretary in September.

Sources told this newspaper that the Cabinet subcommittee of the Union government gave its nod for enhancing the retirement age, and orders amending the service rules are expected much before the retirement of the two officials. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, was keen to enhance the retirement age of bureaucrats.

Sources said that though the proposal is ready for implementation, there will be a few months’ delay because the government wants to make Mr Pulok Chatterjee the new Cabinet secretary at the Centre and prefers to wait for bureaucrats senior to him to retire before it makes the announcement.

Mr Chatterjee had earlier worked with the UPA chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and is considered a natural choice to take over from the incumbent Mr K.M. Chandrasekhar. “There are a few bureaucrats senior to Mr Chatterjee and the Centre will wait for their retirement in April,” explained a senior official.

Back here in the state, the government will be keen to retain the services of Mr Prasad and Mr Aravinda Rao who have proved to be assets when the state is passing through turbulent times. The former chief minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, appointed the two officials to the top posts and his successor Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy did not make any changes. Another senior bureaucrat, Ms Janaki Kondapi, will also benefit from the change in the new retirement age as she is due for retirement in the next few months.

  

  Source : Deccan Chronicle