‘Not ideal to receive pension while sitting idle’, Adoor urges retirees to be active  

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior director Adoor Gopalakrishnan criticized the present system of giving pension to those sitting idle without doing any work. The director said that it is not ideal to receive pension while sitting idle. Speaking while inaugurating the BSS annual function held in Thiruvananthapuram, he alleged that such an approach would limit the opportunities of the youth.

'Pension is being given to them from the public exchequer for the entire period after retirement. Non-productive expenditure. There is a system in place where people capable of doing many things are being paid to sit idle. They say the reason for this is for the youth to get jobs. There are only a certain number of jobs. One should be fired and another should be brought in. This is a wrong trend. The youths mostly oppose increasing the retirement age. It is not right to say that they are youths but organizations. If I say this, they will burn effigy in front of my house. However, I have to say the truth,' said Adoor.

'I am 86 years old. I am speaking from my experience. A person should be allowed to work for the betterment of the society throughout his life. He should be rewarded for it. Those who need retirement can be given it at any time. At the age of 86, I still work at least 12 hours a day. I do productive work. Age is not an issue for us, problem is the mind,’ he added.