Mumbai, Feb 10: The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and non-IAS officers in the State are sparring over the difference of two years in the retirement age of the two cadres.Till 1998, the retirement age of all the government servants was 58. However, the Atal Behari Vajpayee government enhanced it to 60 soon after the Fifth Pay Commission submitted its report to the Centre. Subsequently, the State Government also decided to enhance the retirement age to 60.However, the Sena-BJP alliance, which was in power then, reversed the decision on the ground that the move would drastically curtail job opportunities.The Maharashtra State Gazetted Officers Federation has now made it clear to the Congress-led Democratic Front government that the retirement age of IAS as well as non-IAS officials should be on par at 58 years.``We feel that since we are working in the same office, the disparity should be removed forthwith and the retirement age of IAS officials should be reduced to 58 with immediate effect,''a senior office bearer of the federation said.The federation has disputed the claim of the state government that 73 per cent of the revenue is spent for paying wages and salaries of the employees. The White Paper on Economy, which was presented to both the Houses of the state legislature during the Nagpur session, had also expressed concern over the ever increasing expenditure on the establishment.In addition, the federation has demanded that 50 per cent of the posts in the IAS should be filled by nomination so that the officials from state cadre get a fair deal.The federation has also opposed a proposal to freeze the dearness allowance paid to the employees. As one of the austerity measures, the government had proposed that the dearness allowance should be frozen for some time. ``We have warned the government that such a move will prove counterproductive and that we should follow the guidelines prescribed by the centre,'' he said.
