House panel dissatisfied over increase of retirement age

The committee expresses reservation on the government’s decision to increase the retirement age of teachers from 62 to 65 years of age, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Apr 28, 2007, 21:43:34 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A Parliamentary committee has expressed reservation on the government’s decision to increase the retirement age of teachers from 62 to 65 years of age.

The move, the committee on HRD, said would deprive a large number of qualified unemployed youth waiting for a suitable job. "It would also discourage our bright young people to come to higher education," the committee observed, in its report tabled on Friday.

The Union Cabinet on March had given approval to a proposal of HRD Ministry to increase retirement age of teachers in centrally funded educational institutions from 62 to 65 years of age, with a proviso of reemployment after 65 years till attainment of 70 years.

The committee also sought from the government subject wise data on qualified talent available in the country while expressing concern over large number of teaching posts remaining vacant in educational institutions.

Contending that the progress made for filling the vacancies in central universities was "highly disappointing" the committee emphasised the need for dealing with this crucial issue in a more serious and planned manner. The problem has become more grave in wake of the government’s decision to increase the intake of students by 54 per cent to implement 27 per cent OBC quota.

Another parliamentary committee took a serious view on the killing of Asiatic lions in Gir Wildlife Sanctuary and sought a reply from the Environment and Forest ministry on steps been taken to protect the highly threatened species. Government had admitted of killing of eight lions in Gir and 18 persons have been arrested in this connection.

The committee has also not favoured the government’s move to relocate people from Tiger Reserves stating that isolated habitats for tigers can be an easy target for poachers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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