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Maharashtra to reverse retirement age of state government employees

The Maharashtra cabinet today approved the reversal of the retirement age of state government employees from 60 to 58 years.

Announcing this at his first post-cabinet press briefing after taking over, Chief Minister Narayan Rane said that due to this decision, 16,375 employees would be retired from service on February 28. The state government would reimburse their dues amounting to Rs 1.99 billion from the next financial year, he said.

The decision to this effect was taken last Thursday in the co-ordination committee meeting of the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government.

The cabinet also decided to set up a separate department for nomadic tribes welfare in Mantralaya. The department will look into setting up of ashram schools, scholarships and educational facilities for children belonging to nomadic tribes and also the administration of the Vasantrao Naik Corporation, which will provide grants and loans for economic assistance of such communities.

Regarding the long pending demands of junior college teachers who recently withdrew their 40-day old strike following intervention of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, Rane said he would hold a meeting of the ministers handling education and finance, the deputy chief minister and representatives of teachers' organisations tomorrow. A final decision would be taken there itself, he said.

Rane also announced that additional district courts would be set up in Niphad in Nashik district, Shahada in Dhule district and Bhandup in Bombay to handle pending Central Bureau of Investigations in the state.

Asked about the number of pending cases, Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, who was also present, intervened to say that the state government could not give any figures since it was just following the Centre's directive to set up additional courts.

The state government has also decided to provide 90 per cent grants for persons living below poverty line to purchase shares of sugar and cotton co-operative factories. Earlier, the grant was 50 per cent. The face value of the share has been increased from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000.

A water conservation and supply committee are also to be set up in zilla parishads to speed up the work of supplying drinking water and to help conserve water in rural areas. The zilla parishad chief executive officer and chairmen of the zilla parishad committees of agriculture, the public works department and finance are to be members of this committee.

The cabinet has approved 125 out of 129 recommendations of the Maharashtra Finance Commission. The chief minister also said the cabinet has approved 28 posts for the medical health university at Nashik.

UNI

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