What do you do with 1 lakh govt retirees every year? At 60, individuals remain energetic, says personnel minister Jitendra Singh

WHAT should the Central government do with 40,000 employees who retire from various ministries and central government agencies annually? The number of retired government personnel could be close to one lakh a year if defence, railways, posts and telecom retirees are factored in, according to a statement issued by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions on Wednesday. In fact, minister of state for personnel Dr Jitendra Singh on Wednesday gave a hope to “energetic” retirees, saying that the services of superannuating and retired employees should be…

gainfully utilised to carry forward the flagship programmes of the union government. Does this mean, many retired and experienced government employees don’t need to sit at home once they turn 60? While addressing a pre-retirement counselling workshop called ‘Sankalp’, the minister said that due to increasing life expectancy, an active life lies ahead of an employee at 60 years of age, and the individual is at his prime capacity and remains energetic. Retirement should rather be viewed as the beginning of a new innings, the minister added. He further said that such interactive workshops should ideate on how best the services of retired employees can be utilised.

The superannuating employees can be inducted into advisory bodies of their respective offices and also to dispose of grievances, the minister said. The government has so far conducted pre-retirement counselling for more than 3,300 employees under the Sankalp project. In addition to the new retirees this year, there is a pool of around 50 lakh existing pensioners.