Covid-19: Senior officials in Maha health dept can now serve till 62 years of age, says Rajesh Tope

Photo for representational purpose

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said that in view of the coronavirus pandemic, the state government has decided to give extension in service of up to two years to civil surgeons and other senior officials in the health department beyond their retirement age of 60 years.

Speaking to reporters, he said that this proposal was cleared by the state cabinet during its meeting held here earlier in the day. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The current age of retirement for medical officers and other senior staffers in the health department is 60 years. However, some senior officials as well as civil surgeons were earlier given extension for a year due to the pandemic situation. The move is aimed at ensuring availability of sufficient human resources to provide health services.

"The state has decided 62 years of age would be the cut-off line for any official to serve in the health department. The cabinet today cleared the proposal to give extension to senior officials, civil surgeons in public health department," he said.

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Talking about this move, an official from the health department said, "It means that the official turning 62 years of age this year will retire from service in the current year itself. But the officials who were earlier given a one-year extension after they turned 60 - the regular age of retirement - will get extension for another year and will retire once they turn 62 years."

Tope, while speaking about the recruitment in the health department, said, "The state has filled 899 posts last week. There will be a fresh advertisement in the next four days for filling at least 1,000 posts of doctors and specialists. The pending report of police probing alleged irregularities during the written exam of class C and D has been received. The state will take appropriate steps to fill the positions."

When asked about daily Covid-19 cases not falling below 6,000, he said, "The state has been reporting around 6,000 to 8,000 cases on a daily basis since the last one month. However, out of the 1,00,004 active cases in the state, 92 per cent are in 10 districts alone."

"Apart from the metro cities like Mumbai and Pune, higher number of infection cases are reported in Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and now Ahmednagar. There are level-3 restrictions in place in the entire state now. The decision to issue more relaxations will be taken by the chief minister himself," he said.

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