There is no proposal to raise pension age in State, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has reiterated. Any decision in this connection would be taken only after taking youth organisations into confidence, he told the State Assembly on Monday.
He also denied reports suggesting that there was a freeze on recruitments into Government. “This is not the policy of the present administration,” he added.
The Chief Minister chided the Opposition for trying to drum up a baseless campaign among youth saying that the Government is planning to raise retirement age.
In fact, number of persons recruited into Government services through the Public Service Commission has gone up leaps and bounds, he added.
The State Government had raised retirement age from 55 to 56 after coming to power last year.
The Chief Minister clarified in the House that the Government would not do anything that might compromise Kudumbashree model of women empowerment.
NODAL AGENCY
He reiterated that Kudumbashree would continue to be the nodal agency for the National Rural Livelihood Mission. The State Government has accepted a suggestion put forward in this context by Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh.
Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said that a report on suspected cases of ‘human trafficking’ through State’s airports has been commissioned.
The director-general of police has been given two weeks’ time to submit the report, based on which the Government would get cracking and book the guilty.
Excise minister K. Babu said that the Government did not intend to implement total prohibition in the State.
LIQUOR SALES
He informed the House that Kerala State Beverages Corporation has sold liquor worth Rs 13,000 crore during the period from May, 2011 to November, 2012.
The minister added that toddy tapping sector was in a dire crisis in the State. This is why the Government has stopped short of putting a cap on bar licenses.
Meanwhile, speaker G. Karthikeyan has permitted the use of laptops and iPads in the Assembly. He issued a ruling to this effect on Tuesday. There has been prevailing a ban on the use of these gadgets till now.
While giving the ruling, the speaker noted that technology is all-pervasive now and ban on their legal use did not anymore make sense.
But he requested members to observe utmost care while exhausting technology options on floor and cited the bad precedent set by legislators in Karnataka.