Unknown miscreants circulate false Andhra Pradesh GO hiking retirement age

AMARAVATI: All the retirement-eligible government employees rejoiced when the Andhra Pradesh government increased the retirement age from 62 to 65 on Saturday. However, their joy was short-lived because the retirement age news was false, and the Andhra Pradesh government debunked the fake news.

Fake news spread quickly over all social media platforms, misleading reputable news outlets as well. Even though the miscreants did their best to make the fake GO look authentic, they made numerous obvious errors during the editing process. They cited an official GO Ms 15 issued by the Andhra Pradesh government on January 31, 2022, changing the retirement age from 60 to 62 years. However, in the fake GO, the date was changed to January 28, 2023.

One of the major errors they committed with the fake GO was setting the implementation date to January 1, 2023, whereas it should ideally be February 1, 2023 if issued this month end. Another major blunder was that the miscreants used the numerals 62 in the fake GO when the genuine old GO indicated sixty two in words in the second point.

The Andhra Pradesh government clarified in an official statement that the circulated GO was fake and fabricated and was not issued by the state government.

The official statement by the state government reads, "It is brought to the notice of the Government that in the visual media and social media, a G.O. stated to have been issued by the Finance Department,Government of Andhra Pradesh, mentioning that the age of retirement of Government employees is raised from 62 years to 65 years is under circulation.The Government hereby clarifies that the G.O. is false and fabricated and not issued by the Government".

The state government advised employees and the general public not to be misled by this false G.O. 5. The finance department even said the state government would file an FIR and pursue criminal charges against the criminals in accordance with the law. The Andhra Pradesh Finance Department also filed a complaint with Guntur SP, requesting that a case be registered against the fake news