Farooq promises increase in retirement age of Govt emp by Mar 31

Rajouri, Nov 21 (UNI) To woo the large number of government employees, former Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) patron Farooq Abdullah has promise if voted to power, he would announce the increase in the retirement age of the employees by two years by March 31, 2009.

Addressing a series of public meetings yesterday in Rajouri district, which goes to poll on November 23, Dr Abdullah expressed concern over the problem of unemployment in the state.

''Development of far-flung areas is among the top most priorities of my government,'' the confident Chief Ministerial candidate of the NC said.

He promised that the NC, after coming to power, would fill the 40,000 posts lying vacant in various government departments through a fast track recruitment drive.

''The Sixth Pay Commission report will be implemented and a committee will be constituted to see into the enhancement of the retirement age of the government employees.

''I promise minimum curtailment of electricity and also people-friendly power tariff. Besides, the NC government would focus on providing clean drinking water and better road connectivity to all villages,'' Dr Abdullah said.

Dismissing the claim of the Congress and the People's Democratic Party (PDP), the NC patron said, ''The Congress-PDP misrule has brought miseries to the people of the state and even their basic needs have not been catered to by a defective, incompetent delivery mechanism, which was the outcrop of a defunct government.'' Dr Abdullah lambasted on the PDP saying, it has developed a habit of ''befooling'' the masses by taking credit of opening of roads between the two parts of the country. ''The credit goes to the Government of India for taking the bold initiatives, which will go a long way in finding a peaceful solution to the decades old Kashmir issue,'' he added.

The NC patron blamed the ''unholy alliance'' of the Congress and the PDP for the entire mess in the state.

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