by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Exclusive report
PM orders review of Centre's 45 Lakh work force utility
88 ministries, Deptts. told to justify manpower
Lowering retirement age too under consideration
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Oct. 1
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is embarking upon another exercise on a massive scale to review the very utility of Central Government's massive workforce of 45 lakh employees.
He has ordered a review of all kinds of under 88 ministries & departments. Never before a Prime Minister initiated an exercise of this scale to review manpower planning of the government's recruitment policy.
Sources in the PMO say that this is being done to tame unemployment and boost fresh recruitment. These administrative reforms will create new jobs as times have changed and obsolete manpower has to be discarded.
In a notification issued by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) buried in a corner of the website under “Cadre Review Division” on September 17, the government said, “In order to formulate manpower planning and policies, service profile of various services/cadres/posts in the govt. is required. In view of the above, all ministries and departments are required to furnish the required information by September 30.”
All 45 lakh employees will have to account for their utility & purpose of employment by their departments with a vision of the future. Each one of them will have to explain in writing their utility and why they require such a huge structure. The deadline for these departments ended yesterday.
The Centre is also toying with the idea of lowering of retirement age of its employees and fix their years of service to reduce stagnation and expedite promotions. But this is at a very preliminary stage. Its main object is to to reduce the government expenditure. The proposal doing the rounds in the PMO is to retire employees who have completed 33 years of service or on reaching 58 years of age, whichever is earlier. The proposal is being processed by the Department of Expenditure, which is looking into its financial implications.
At present, the retirement age in most of the services is 60 years, though for teaching and medical professionals, its 65 years. The latter category may not be affected. But their pay may be frozen if they want to continue, said a senior officer dealing with the proposal. Curiously, Economic Survey 2018-19 had made a strong case for increasing the retirement age in the wake of the rising life expectancy rate in India.
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