At a Cabinet meeting here, the BJP government decided to lower the retirement age from 60 to 58 years and to hike VAT on diesel from the present 9.24 per cent to 12.07 per cent.
Shortly before the October 15 Assembly polls, the Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda had increased the retirement age of state government employees by two years to 60. It was enhanced to 62 years for Class IV employees and persons with disabilities.
"All employees who had completed 58 or 60 years in their respective categories and are still serving would be retired on November 30, 2014.The upper age limit for fresh recruitment would remain (unchanged at) 42 years. This decision had been taken to ensure maximum employment opportunity to the youth," he said.
The Cabinet also decided to increase VAT on diesel from the present 9.24 per cent to 12.07 per cent, with the Chief Minister saying the exchequer would earn an additional Rs 750 crore annually following the move.
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"This is the most unfortunate anti-people and anti-farmer decision. This will lead to inflationary pressure on the market as a whole, besides putting unwarranted burden on the farming community who are already browbeaten by astronomical low prices of cotton and basmati rice," Congress national spokesman and former Haryana minister Randeep Singh Surjewala told PTI over phone.
The Congress leader was also critical of the rollback of some of the decisions of the Congress regime including the lowering of the retirement age.
Among other decisions, Khattar said the state government had also decided to remove the Chairman and members of Haryana Staff Selection Commission and to revoke the Act of Haryana Teacher Service Selection Board. He said a new system would soon be introduced for teachers recruitment.