THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Youth Congress slammed the Kerala government's move to raise the retirement age for state PSU employees to 60 on Tuesday, branding it "anti-youth."
They also strongly disapproved of the way DYFI's national president, A.A. Rahim, responded when asked about the choice, claiming that Kerala's unit will contest it. It was unexpected because DYFI was known to take to the streets whenever the CPI-M was in opposition.
Shafi Parambil, the head of the Youth Congress and a three-time member of the Congress, claimed that DYFI is merely a Vijayan administration PR firm.
The Vijayan government's intention to raise the retirement age to 60 is anti-youth, and the Youth Congress will not stand for it. "If the retirement age is raised, the dreams, hopes, and aspirations of the youth in the state would be crushed," said Parambil. There are more than 100 State PSU's engaging nearly 1.50 lakh workers. The fresh order was issued based on the recommendations of an expert committee, which conducted a thorough study on the formulation of a common framework for pay/wage structure of PSUs in the state, with the exception of Kerala State Electricity Board, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, and Kerala Water Authority. It is noteworthy that the retirement age of various PSUs in the state ranges from 56 to 58. The expert committee had proposed raising the retirement age for all state PSU personnel universally to 60, the same as for central PSU staff.
For many, the statement that the Kerala unit of the DYFI will respond from Rahim, a familiar figure on most vernacular TV networks, has come as a shock.
The ruling Vijayan government's second-largest ally, the AIYF, the youth wing of the CPI, has vigorously opposed the proposal to raise the retirement age.
T.T.Jismon, state secretary for AIYF, claimed that this decision comes as a shock to the state's young. Jismon said, "This is a policy decision and the Left Democratic Front has to be aware of this. We will demonstrate against this decision since this is going to adversely harm the career aspirations of the youth and we absolutely cannot allow this." The state's severe financial situation, which has left certain state PSUs like Traco Cables unable to pay employees' salaries and retirement benefits, is one of the factors that led to the decision.
The leader of the opposition, V.D. Satheesan, responded to the development by stating that it is well-known how much noise the CPI-M made when they were in the opposition whenever someone in the government brought up the retirement age issue.
They should have started a conversation on this important topic with the opposition and the young organisations, as this is how the CPI-M operates, said Satheesan. "And now that they are in power, how cunningly they dealt with it and issued an order. He said, "This may just be the beginning as this may even be expanded to the state government."
In Kerala, where the state government employees are the only ones to retire at age 56, there are over 4.5 million educated adolescents who are unemployed. The CPI-M has always opposed raising the retirement age.
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