External affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the three-member committee, today said he had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and defence minister Mr AK Antony.
“Shortly, I am going to discuss with the finance minister (P Chidambaram),” he told reporters here when asked about the issue.
Without giving details of his discussions with the Prime Minister, Mr Mukherjee merely said: “I do hope we will be able to sort out the issue shortly”.
The committee, which also includes Mr Antony and Mr Chidambaram, was set up by the Prime Minister on 25 September in the wake of deep resentment in the armed forces, who complained that there were “anomalies” in the 6th Pay Commission recommendations and that it had lowered the status of their officers.
After the government notification was issued on 29 August, the issues of “anomalies” in the pay for officers was first raised by Air chief Fali Homi Major in his letter in his capacity as acting chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC).
Chiefs of Navy and Army too have been voicing their resentment. Mr Antony has strongly favoured resolution of core issues raised by the three services chiefs in their representation to the government. He wrote to Mr Chidambaram, raising issues of disparities”, including the ones relating to Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBORs).
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In a country where qualities like corruption and inefficiency are not only rewarded but expected from civilian offices (read bureaucrats and politicians), the armed forces MUST be reduced in status and monetary standards. Otherwise, their standards of efficiency and attitude of "getting the job done" may slowly become the norm. That must be a scary thought for those who are in charge of formulating pay and status policy.
Varsity teachers yet to get revised pay scales
More than six lakh university and college teachers of the country are yet to get the new salary package though the Human Resource Development(HRD) Ministry notified the salary revision in December last year and announced it in Parliament.
The delay in implementing the new pay scales was due to the fact that the University Grant Commission(UGC) was still awaiting the HRD Ministry's formal nod for fixation of salaries in different pay bands for the university and college teachers as per fitments of the Central Pay Commission, sources said here on Sunday.
They also said the Ministry also sent a note to the UGC informing that the new salary formulae should not be notified without the clearance of the Ministry.
Incidentally, the December 31 notification was issued after Cabinet approval and was declared in the Lok Sabha. And by the end of this month, according to the original notification, the teachers should have got their 40 per cent arrears! But nothing has moved.
Peeved over the delay in implementation of the new pay scales, leaders of several teachers' associations and unions charged that HRD Minister Arjun Singh was not allowing the implementation of the Cabinet-approved notification to settle political scores.
"He is making teachers victims and is not willing to implement pay revision of the teachers,'' said an academician.
Sources told The Pioneer that the UGC top officials, who met the FEDCUTA and AIFUCTO representatives on January 6, 2009 on the pay revision issue, had assured that the fixation formulas would be notified immediately. But as it turned out till date _ more than two-and-a-half months _ have rolled by the UGC has failed to notify the fixation formulas.
They said as the matter stands now after the UGC had submitted the fixation tables to the HRD Ministry it forwarded them again to the Expenditure Department, Ministry of Finance.
This action of the HRD Ministry was ultra-vires as the December 31, 2008 notification had clearly stated that the fixation has to be done as per the Central Pay Commission fixation tables, sources said.
The Expenditure Department went a step further and rejected the pay fixation tables submitted by the HRD Ministry and the files were now shuttling between the two ministries for a long time.
When contacted, IGNOU Teachers' Association president Prof Kapil Kumar accused HRD Minister Arjun Singh of settling his scores with the Congress high command by indulging in these delaying tactics as non-payment of revised salary and arrears as per the fixation tables of the CPC had already created an uproar amongst the teaching community throughout the country.
Professor Kumar said "This is the best way to embarrass the Congress and defame the party amongst the teachers for non-implementation of the pay package given to them before the elections and to score a political point.":
Similar voices have been raised by many others in the teaching community and a senior professor from Delhi University stated that "Arjun Singh has been too busy in fixing his favourites on various positions rather than getting the pay package of the teachers implemented."
Source-http://www.dailypioneer.com/164372/Varsity-teachers-yet-to-get-revised-pay-scales.html
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