SCCL Board enhances retirement age to 61 years

The 557th Board of Directors meeting of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has approved enhancement of superannuation age of employees from 60 years to 61 years. The decision comes in the wake of a recent directive from Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in this direction. It has also decided to provide 10 per cent reservation in jobs for economically weaker sections.

SCCL chairman and managing director N Sridhar chaired the Board of Directors meeting, which was also attended by the Directors of SCCL along with the representatives of the Centre and the State governments.

In March this year, the Chief Minister issued orders raising the retirement age for all State government employees from 58 to 61 years. He also suggested that it should be implemented for the officers and employees of Singareni Collieries Company Limited as well. On July 20, he chaired a review meeting with the elected representatives of the Singareni region and the SCCL chairman where he suggested that the 61-year age limit should be implemented in SCCL. 

Accordingly, the Board gave its approval to the proposal and has decided to implement it with retrospective effect from March 31 this year as per the State government directives.

The decision will benefit a total of 43,899 people, including Singareni officers, employees and workers. It will also reinstate 39 officers and 689 workers who retired between March 31 and June 30. The departments concerned were instructed to formulate comprehensive procedures in this regard as well as implement the enhanced age limit for superannuation in the educational institutions affiliated to SCCL.

In a slew of measures, the Board approved the proposal to ensure equal opportunities in all jobs of the Company irrespective of



gender. Accordingly, it has decided to provide an opportunity in compassionate appointments for daughters even after their marriage and divorce. So far, the compassionate appointments were allowed only for sons and unmarried daughters. 

But following requests from the workers, the Board has decided to consider married and divorced daughters as well as single women who are dependent on the retired employee or worker, for the succession and compassionate appointments.

For the current financial of 2021-22, the SCCL Board approved allocation of Rs 60 crore towards works under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for development of nearby villages. The Board also approved the machinery and contract work required for various mines, apart from budgetary allocation required for the construction of two new roads for the newly launched RG OC-5 at Ramagundam. The designations of mining officers with a First Class Mine Manager certificate, will be changed.

The Board has done away with the gender restrictions for executive and NCWA job recruitments, allowing anyone to apply for these posts. It has also allotted 201 plots of 85 sq.yards each in Singareni Resettlement Colony at Naspur in Srirampur area for the displaced families who lost their properties due to national highway expansion.

Principal Secretary for Finance K Ramakrishna Rao and Secretary for Energy Sandeep Kumar Sultania from the State government, Union Ministry of Coal Director PSL Swamy and Deputy Secretary Ajitesh Kumar from the Central government, Western Coal Fields chairman and managing director Manoj Kumar, along with Singareni Directors S Chandrasekhar (Operations), N Balaram (Finance, Projects & Planning, Personnel), and D Satyanarayana Rao (E&M) were present.