Amidst Opposition’s uproar, Kerala Finance Minister K.M. Mani announced the enhancement of the age of superannuation of State employees and teachers to 56 years from the present 55 years.
Presenting the 2012-13 budget in the Assembly on Monday, Mr. Mani said that the retirement age in the State had effectively become 56 years following the ‘pension age unification’ brought into effect by the last Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. The government, he said, has withdrawn the unification scheme and confirmed the retirement age as 56 years.
The announcement drew instant protest from the Opposition, which was already agitated over what it termed ‘leak’ of budget contents to the media. Although Speaker G. Karthikeyan tried to pacify the Opposition members with the assurance that leak, if any, would be visited according to the procedures of the Assembly, this did not fully satisfy the Opposition benches. The Finance Minister was forced to continue with his budget speech amidst sloganeering from young LDF members from the well of the House.
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