After the fake news of a reduction in the age of retirement of government employees circulated, the Centre gave clarification by refuting the news and said there is no such move to reduce the retirement age.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh categorically stated on Monday that there is no such move to reduce the retirement age nor has been such a proposal discussed or contemplated at any level in the government.

“There are certain motivated elements which have been over the last few days, time and again planting such disinformation in a section of media and attributing it to the government sources or DoP&T,” Jitendra Singh said.

He said each time a prompt rebuttal is sought to be made in order to clear the confusion in the minds of stakeholders.

“On the contrary, right from the beginning of the emergence of the Corona challenge, Government and the DoP&T have, from time to time taken prompt decisions to safeguard the interests of the employees,” he said.

He said, even before the lockdown was officially announced, DoP&T had issued an advisory for the offices to work with “absolutely necessary or minimum staff”. Even though the essential services were exempted from this guideline, DOPT had issued directions to exempt the ‘Divyang employees even from the essential services’.

Meanwhile, Singh also told that the Civil Services Preliminary Test will be done after May 3. Similarly, on the same line, SSC has also postponed its process of recruitment.

He also refuted the news of a cut in share of pension of government employees.

Jitendra Singh said that last week there was fake news that the government had decided to impose a 30% reduction in the pension and discontinue pensions for those who are above the age of 80.

“However, contrary to this, the truth is that on the 31st of March there was not a single pensioner whose pension did not deposit in his account. Not only this, but services of the Postal Department were also sought to deliver the pension amount at the residence of the pensioners, whenever required,” he said.

As for the Department of Personnel, in the last four weeks, the Ministry of Personnel has had Video Conference consultations for Pensioners and Senior Citizens across 20 cities where pulmonary advice was given by experts like Dr Randeep Guleria, Director (AIIMS). Similarly, Yoga Sessions on Webinar are also being organized.