No pension without four years of service: govt to introduce new rule for ministers' personal staff

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government is set to make four years of service mandatory for ministers’ personal staff members to become eligible for pension benefits. At present, staff members become eligible for pension after completing just two years of service. Even service exceeding two years was previously counted as three years for pension purposes. The government is now planning to change these rules. According to reports, Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan has given instructions regarding the proposal to ministers.

The new rule will not be implemented retrospectively. This means those who are already receiving pension with less than four years of service will continue to get the benefit. The revised rule will apply only to the personal staff appointed under the new government.

Until now, it had become common practice to replace personal staff members after two years and appoint new people, allowing both groups to qualify for pension benefits. Kerala is the only state where personal staff of the Chief Minister, ministers, and Chief Whip are entitled to pension benefits. Although several objections had been raised over the system, including by the Supreme Court, previous governments did not move to end the practice. Former Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had strongly criticised the system and announced that he would take up the issue.

Calling the practice a “fraud” and an “abuse of law,” Arif Mohammed Khan questioned why public money was being used in this way while many young people were forced to go abroad in search of jobs. He also criticised the fact that party workers were receiving lifetime pensions, while ordinary citizens have to work for decades to earn retirement benefits.