The Cabinet on Monday turned down a proposal of the Liberation War Affairs Ministry to raise the retirement age limit of freedom fighter public servants to 65 years from the existing 60 years. The decision came from the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said the Public Administration Ministry placed a letter of the Prime Minister’s Office regarding the freedom fighters’ age limit extension as per directives of the High Court and the Appellate Division. He said the Cabinet at the meeting came up with a view that the government earlier raised the retirement age limit of the freedom fighter public servants from 57 to 59 years in 2010. Later, on February 26, 2013, the government raised the retirement age limit for the public servants from 57 to 59 years and further raised it for the freedom fighter public servants from 59 years to 60 years. The Supreme Court gave the directives after a hearing on November 16, 2015 on the letter to comply with the High Court order and place it before the Cabinet within 60 days to get the Cabinet decision. Shafiul Alam said the Cabinet gave the decision today within the specified timeframe as it got the certified copy of the court order on November 24, 2015. He said the Cabinet also returned a draft proposal of the National E-Service Policy, 2015 of the Information and Communication Technology Division and asked the ministry to place it again after further scrutiny of the draft and incorporating its some observations. Ministers and State Ministers attended the meeting while concerned secretaries were present. –Dhaka, Jan 18 (UNB)
