Thiruvananthapuram:
The Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala raised the retirement age of stategovernment employees to 56 years from the existing 55.
Finance Minister K M Mani made the announcement in this regard while presenting the state Budget for the current fiscal.
The announcement, however, sparked protests from opposition LDF members who alleged that the proposal hadalready appeared in a section of the press, amounting to leak of budget secrets.
Members kept on raising slogans by sitting in the well of the House despite Speaker G Karthikeyan's assurance that theissue raised by them will be examined in the light of similar precedents in the state assembly and Parliament.
The opposition members started protesting as soon as the Finance Minister read out the proposal regarding retirement age.