New cell to clear dues of govt staffers retired prematurely

Panaji: The state cabinet on Wednesday granted its approval to form a separate pension cell to verify the cases of compensation to government employees, including teachers, who were prematurely retired at the age of 58 in 2005. Recently, the high court of Bombay at Goa had directed the state government to pay the difference in pension to these employees.
“A separate cell has been appointed and we will try to clear the compensation cases as soon as possible,” chief minister Pramod Sawant said. “The difference varies by case. The former employees will get the pension due to them.”
Under chief minister Manohar Parrikar, the retirement age was brought down from 60 to 58. However, within a short span, the next government restored the retirement age to 60. The employees said that they lost out on pension and other benefits due to the temporary decision of the government to reduce the retirement age. The affected teachers approached the high court, which ruled in their favour and directed the government to pay them the difference in pension.
The state government had accordingly called for the details of such employees and now the new cell will help expedite the payment of the difference in pension and other benefits to these employees.