Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu’s one of the five promises after his swearing-in to enhance the retirement age of government employees from 58 years to 60 years is seen as a solution to wriggle out of the difficult financial situation for the State while keeping the employees happy by conceding their long pending demand.
The demand to increase retirement age to 60 years was in principle approved by the Pay Revision Commission and was raised by the employees associations, both Telangana and Seemandhra during the run up to the General elections.
With close to 30,000 government employees due for retirement in the current and next year, of them 18,000 from Seemandhra alone, the outflow from the government towards their terminal benefits would be a steep burden on the financially beleaguered State, say senior officials.
Sources say by getting a breather of two years from this expenditure, the State government hopes to stabilise its delicate financial position by giving priority to capital expenditure on infrastructure and other assets to kick-start the economy.
Another positive fall out of this decision is Seemandhra employees who are reluctant to move out of Hyderabad may give their option to work in the residuary Andhra Pradesh in the final allocation of the State cadre employees between the two successor States of Telangana and AP under the State Reorganisation Act. This can also induce Telangana employees on the verge of retirement to opt to work with Andhra Pradesh Government to get a bonus of another two years of service.
The move would also help the Andhra Pradesh Government cut down the need for massive recruitment. It is estimated that about 2.5 lakh posts of various cadres were vacant in the undivided State which would be distributed between the two States on the basis of population ratio of 58:42. On the other hand, retirement age hike move could stave off more vacancies in the government for some time.
The proposal on increasing retirement age will be put for Cabinet clearance. The government is likely to take an ordinance route to implement the decision, sources said.
