Maharashtra will engage retired government officers and employees for specific tasks on the honorary contractual basis.

State chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said yesterday that the government shall prepare a region-wise list of such retired officers and employees. "The retired officers and employees appointed under the policy will get a maximum honorarium amount of Rs 40,000 and the age limit for appointment will be 70 years," he said.

There is a freeze on recruitment in some government departments and hence if the services of retired expert officers and employees are utilized.

"The government shall draw up a subject-wise panel of such retired officers and employees, who are needed in designated offices," he said.

Fadnavis said the appointments of retired officers and employees from government offices, government undertakings, local self-governing bodies (civic bodies) will be on contract basis and not for regular nature of work, but shall be only for specific works.

"Such a panel drawn up shall be valid for three years and a review shall be carried out periodically. Besides this, it will also be mandatory that such retired officers and employees need to have the necessary expertise for which their services are being sought," he said.

"However, appointments to regular sanctioned posts will not be made by contract basis but appointments to these posts shall be made by Service Entry Rules. Besides this, 10% of the posts shall be kept earmarked for candidates having special skills," Fadnavis said.

He said the selection to the panels shall be made on the applications received from the candidates.

The honorarium for these retired officers and employees will be derived after deducting the salary they were drawing when they retired (basic pay and dearness allowance) and on the pension that they are now getting, Fadnavis said.

"Besides this, the selected employees will have to be physically and mentally sound. However, those officers and employees, who have opted for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) shall not be considered for the empanelment," Fadnavis said.