Retirement age of faculty members of Govt Medical Colleges to be raised from 65 to 70 years: Cabinet

Aug. 19: In the weekly Assam Cabinet on August 19, several key decisions related retirement of medical college faculty members, reengagement of ex-HPC workers, medicines for Govt hospitals, service rules of Land Records staff, automated vehicle testing stations, solar power plant, etc, among others were taken. The Cabinet Meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma. 

KEY DECISIONS: 

Raise in Doctors’ Retirement Age:

❖ Retirement age of faculty members of Govt Medical Colleges to be raised from 65 years to 70 years to augment availability of experienced doctors for educational and medical service.

Free Medicines to Hospitals:

❖ T136.8 crore to be sanctioned for implementation of ‘Free Drugs and Consumables including Tea Gardens’ scheme for 2022-23

❖ It will ensure uninterrupted availability of free essential drugs, surgicals, sutured, disinfectants-chemicals and consumables in Govt health facilities

Reengaging ex-workers of HPC:

❖ 66 former employees/ workers of Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd will be reengaged in vacant Grade III & IV posts through a Special Recruitment Drive with relaxation in upper age limit

Transfer of Assets: ASEB to APDCL: 

❖ Issue of Govt notification for transfer of assets and liabilities relating to the transfer of trading function of ASEB to APDCL and consolidated Opening Balance Sheet of APDCL as on 1 April 2009. ❖ Approval to the Balance Sheet of APDCL as on 31 March 2013 with transfer of residual function of ASEB consequent upon reorganisation of ASEB.

Automated Vehicle Testing Stations:

❖ Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) authorised to set up Automated Vehicle Testing Stations (ATS) on Govt & ASTC land for conducting Fitness Test of vehicles

❖ 8 ATSes to be set up in PPP mode on BOOT (Build Own Operate and Transfer) and revenue sharing model

Hospitality Projects in the Pipeline:

❖ Land to be allotted to Tourism Dept and MoU to be signed between Indian Hotel Company Limited and Assam Tourism Development Corporation for setting up of two hospitality projects at Hatikhuli (Golaghat district) and Kellyden (Nagaon district).

❖ This will transform Kaziranga National Park into an all-season tourism destination and generate substantial employment opportunities.

New Service Rules for Land Records Staff: Highlights

❖ Better promotional prospects

❖ Compulsory inter-district transfer every 5 years

❖  Renaming of cadres: Existing nomenclature of Mandal/Amin/Patwari to be renamed as Land Records Assistant (LRA) and Supervisor Kanungo as Land Records Supervisor (LRS) and Inspector of Land Records as Land Records Inspector (LRI)

❖ Land Records Officer : Additional cadre of Land Records Officer proposed for encouraging/ incentivising land records staff

Promotion pattern:

• LRA to LRS
• LRS to LRI
• LRI to LRO

❖ LRI and LRO to be gazetted posts

❖ Examination to be held for recruitment of LRA (Educational qualification – graduate)

Support to kin of deceased Govt employees:

Assam Services (Pension) Rules, 1969 to be amended to regularise guidelines and insert Compassionate Family Pension (CFP) Scheme in the rules for providing immediate financial support to families of employees

Features:

❖ Families of deceased Govt servants, who die in harness, will be able to draw 100% of the last pay drawn by the deceased which shall continue till the deceased’s deemed date of superannuation

❖ On attaining the age of deemed superannuation, CFP will be converted into normal family pension – to be fixed at 50% of CFP till 67 years of age of the deceased employee. During these 7 years, normal family pension will be revised periodically as and when normal pension is revised

❖ On completion of 7 years, normal family pension will be reduced from 50% to 30%
❖ This will benefit all State Government employees as well as All India Services Officers (Assam cadre)