Hyderabad: Due to the election code of conduct in force till all seven phases of the parliamentary elections are completed, as many as 6,000 state government employees are losing out on three years extension of their service.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in its election manifesto for the 2018 assembly elections had promised to increase the retirement age for government employees from the existing 58 years to 61 years.
The cabinet has to take the decision to implement this, but cannot do so because of the code of conduct. As a result, in the last three month period about 6,000 employees were retired, according to official sources.
If the government had taken the decision immediately after the formation of the government, these 6000 employees would have got an extension of service for three more years.
After taking oath as Chief Minister for the second time on December 13, 2018, K. Chandrasekhar Rao did not constitute the Cabinet for almost two months. With elections coming one after the other, Telangana state has been under the election code for months together.
The present election code will continue till May 23, the day the Lok Sabha election results will be declared.
Government employees are hoping the government will announce the new benefit on June 2, on the occasion of Telangana state formation day.
But once the Lok Sabha results are declared, political parties will be busy with the complexities of government formation at the centre. Should there be a hung parliament, the Chief Minister will be involved in forming the Federal Front at national level with regional parties, and state issues will take a back seat.
A further delay in taking the policy decision means more government employees will lose the benefit of extended service. Officials say it is not possible to implement this with retrospective effect. Once an employee retires, the concerned department will settle all the retirement benefits immediately.
Telangana Government Employees’ president A. Padma Chary told this newspaper that they can only hope that that the government takes the policy decision on increasing the retirement age after the LS results are announced and announce the new benefit on Telangana state formation day on June 2. He said further delays will only mean that thousands more will lose the benefit.
