MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has decided to act on its old decision to review the employees who have completed 30 years of service and 50 or 55 years of age for performance and integrity.
According to the decision, the employees who are deemed unfit for continuing service after the review would be asked to undergo compulsory early retirement. A government resolution detailing the procedure was published last week. The decision has been taken to speed up administration and deter corrupt employees, said a senior official.
According to the newly set procedures, employees who have completed 49 years of age and 30 years in the service or those who have completed 54 years of age by August 1 would be reviewed for their health records, charges of corruption against them and confidential reports within past five years should be checked by December 31 and those who fail the review should be sent home by March 31. Committees from the district-level to the state secretariat level for the review procedure have already been formed, the officer said.
In another decision recently, the government had clamped down on employees at the state secretariat over irregularities in lunch timings. While employees have been asked to strictly restrict lunch time to half an hour between 1 and 2 pm as per the provision, departmental heads have been asked to ensure that all employees won’t go for lunch at a single go.
The main expense of the state government at present is the salary and pension bill of its 19 lakh employees. While the government has planned major recruitment drive next year, attempts are also being made to rationalize the salary burden.
While in 2010-11, the government spent `51,632 crore on salary and pension of its employees, the number is now expected to reach `1,51,609 crore in 2019-20 according to the state Budget presented in the assembly on Tuesday.
Marathi must for all Boards, says Fadnavis
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday stated in the state legislative council that while his government has already made it compulsory to teach Marathi in schools in the state, the law would be amended to make Marathi compulsory for other school boards like CBSE, ICSE and IB. He was replying to a point of propriety raised by Neelam Gorhe (Shiv Sena) regarding making Marathi a compulsory subject in English and other medium schools in the state. The CM also expressed willingness to meet the delegation of noted litterateurs led by Laxmikant Deshmukh and others who are agitating to make Marathi a compulsory subject.