Kerala minister opposes state govt move to hike retirement age

Thrissur: Minister for sports and youth affairs O J Janeesh on Friday sought to distance from the proposal to enhance the retirement age of the govt employees introduced in the white paper published by the state govt.

The minister argued that the proposal is only a recommendation made by the panel to overcome the acute financial crisis that the state is facing and not a govt policy. “I don’t think the govt will accept that recommendation. The proposal is not acceptable even if it is for tiding over the state’s financial crisis,” said Janeesh, who is also the state president of Youth Congress.

“Youth Congress has been consistently opposed to the enhancement of the retirement age, and there is no change in that position,” he said.

Janeesh alleged that the previous LDF govt had enhanced the retirement age in several public sector institutions which DYFI didn’t oppose. This led to the deprivation of about 35,000 job opportunities to the youth in Kerala, he said. The people had endorsed the continuous agitations conducted by Youth Congress against the move to raise the retirement age and this was visible in the electoral verdict, the minister added.