Andhra Pradesh issues order hiking staff retirement age

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government has issued an ordinance to raise the age of superannuation for all state government employees to 62 years from the present 60 with effect from Jan. 1, 2022.

Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan promulgated the ordinance on Jan. 30 by amending the Andhra Pradesh Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Act, 2014. This ordinance is called Andhra Pradesh Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 and it shall be deemed to have come into force from Jan. 1, 2022. 

Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy had given such an assurance to employee unions during his recent interactions with them on the 11th Pay Revision Commission (PRC) implementation.

The state published the ordinance in its gazette here on Monday. It said there was significant improvement in the average life expectancy compared to the scene in 2014. WHO had reported that the global average life expectancy in 2019 was around 73 years and the average Indian lived up to 70 years with improved health conditions.

Moreover, the state government wanted to utilise the experience and expertise of the senior employees. Hence, it proposed to enhance the current age of superannuation to 62 years from 60 years to all state government employees covered under AP Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) Act, 1984. 

The state government amended the same act in 2014 to enhance the age of superannuation to 60 years from 58 years with effect from June 2, 2014.

The employees who were supposed to retire at the age of 60 years by Jan. 31 were tensed up in recent days as no official word about raising the retirement age came from the state government. This confusion had stalled the preparation of their pension papers by the concerned departments.