Sick old men in key positions

By Vijay Kumar

Our TIOL Cob(Web) today inter alia deals with 60+ retired re-tyred officers in the Settlement Commission. Somehow officers want to cling on to that government job even after retirement and of late several opportunities are created for senior officers to find comfortable parking slots for themselves after their retirement. For the Revenue officers, slots in the Tribunals, Settlement Commissions, Advance Ruling Authorities and now the ombudsmen are all opportunities for that two year grace period after retirement. At 59, the only issue that is of any interest to a senior officer is finding a job after retirement. Many of them are healthy and active and it is a good idea to use their expertise and experience, but in this mad job hunt, even the very sick and tired officers who refuse to see themselves as retired, seek and get these post retirement jobs and they become a terrible liability to the nation.

The effect is these specialist organisations like Tribunals and Settlement Commissions become a state supported old age home and their working is affected. We have nothing against old age - our President, Prime Minister and most of his ministers are pretty old, but they are also pretty healthy and are capable of doing hard work.

The major qualification for selection to these 60+ jobs should be good health and they should be offered these jobs only after a thorough medical examination and these jobs should be offered only to those who can work in these new jobs for at least five years. That is any officer wanting to join the Tribunals or Settlement Commissions should not be over 57 years old. They should sacrifice 3 years of their top job in the government if they want to join these expert bodies.