PANAJI
A separate ‘pension cell’ will be formed to verify, compute and disburse the post-retirement benefits of pensioners who retired in 2005 when the State government reduced the superannuation age to 58 and reverted the decision two years later.
The Goa cabinet on Wednesday approved setting up of the special pension cell for the purpose, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said, adding that the decision is a corollary to the directives of the Bombay High Court at Goa.
A committee had been formed to assess the records of these pensioners, mostly teachers, who retired at 58 and update their pension calculations.
By a government order, the superannuation age was reduced to 58 in 2005. Two years later the order was reversed but the teachers who retired prematurely at 58, in those two years, were given no compensation although they had formed an association and made appeals numerous times before the State government.
Subsequently these pensioners knocked the doors of the High Court and got a favourable decision last year.
By Wednesday’s decision to form the special pension cell, the committee which was constituted to handle the issue has been dissolved. There are approximately 3,000 such prematurely retired pensioners.
Meanwhile in other decisions, the cabinet approved transfer of government land to set up four mobile towers in Quepem and also a health centre in Bicholim. The cabinet also granted post-facto approval for a couple of contract-basis posts at the Goa Medical College.
