Send IAS men above 58 yrs back to Centre, State told

Send IAS men above 58 yrs back to Centre, State told
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, JAN 16: The simmering discontent among the gazetted officers in the State Government service over the special treatment given to IAS officers is out in the open now. The Maharashtra Rajya Rajpatrit Adhikari Mahasangh, an association of the gazetted officers in the state, has demanded that the IAS officers over the age of 58 years should be sent back to the Centre since the retirement age of State Government employees is 58.

Why is it that the retirement age of the State Government employees is 58 and that of the IAS officers is 60 years, G V Kulthe, general secretary of the Mahasangh, has pointed out in a letter written to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

``There are as many as 351 IAS officers in the state which is not necessary at all. The state has to bear the huge expenses incurred on hefty salaries and perks of these officers,'' Kulthe told this paper. In Mantralaya itself, there are 65 IAS officers including 11 in the General Administration Department. ``We have got qualified ministers and competent State service officers to run the administration and there is no need to have IAS officers in such a large number,'' he added.

Since the State Government has refused to raise the retirement age of its employees from 58 to 60, it should not allow the IAS officers to continue in the state administration after that age. Unless the Central Government brings down their retirement age, the State Government should send them to Centre after 58, he reasoned.

Significantly, the association has joined hands with the unions of the government employees who are staging agitations against the state cabinet's recent decision to delink dearness allowance and slash the monetary benefits of the employees. Two years ago, it had distanced itself from the unions when the latter was agitating for the implementation of the fifth pay commission recommendations.

Meanwhile, the association today demanded immediate arrest of Shiv Sena MLA of Amravati Sanjay Band for allegedly assaulting acting chief executive officer of local ZP, U S Chavan and Panchayata Samiti officer Diwan. Government officers in Amravati district will take out a morcha on January 17 and go on leave as a protest on January 18, the association announced here today.