Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Strongly refuting the reports in a section of media that Government has moved a proposal for reducing the age of retirement of government employees to 50 years, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Dr Jitendra Singh on April 26, 2020, categorically stated here that there is no such move to reduce the retirement age nor has been such a proposal discussed or contemplated at any level in the government.
Dr Singh said there are certain elements which have been over the last few days time and again planting such disinformation in a section of media and attributing it to the government sources or DoP&T. He said it was unfortunate that at a time when the country is going through Corona crisis and the entire world is praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his proactive handling of the pandemic, there are certain elements and vested interests which try to underplay all the good work done by the Government by planting such media stories.
On the contrary, right from the beginning of the emergence of the Corona challenge,the Government and the DoP&T have from time to time taken prompt decisions to safeguard the interests of the employees. For example, he said, even before the lockdown was officially announced, DOPT had issued an advisory for the offices to work with “absolutely necessary or minimum staff”. Even though the essential services were exempted from this guideline, DOPT had issued directions to exempt the “Divyang employees even from the essential services”.
Dr Singh said that last week there was fake news that the government had decided to impose a 30% reduction in the pension and discontinue pensions for those above the age of 80. However, contrary to this, the truth is that on March 31, 2020, there was not a single pensioner whose pension did not deposit in his account. Not only this, services of the Postal Department were sought to deliver the pension amount at the residence of the pensioners, whenever required, according to a PIB release.