Pay issue to be resolved shortly : Mr. Pranab Mukherjee

A ministerial committee, set up to look into the armed forces' grievance about pay “anomalies”, is likely to sort out the matter soon.

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).

Professors, lecturers get hefty pay hike after 6th Pay Commission

Professors and lecturers are all set to get hefty pay hike. Following the 6th Pay Commission implementation there was some disappointment among university and colleges teachers over the delay in implementation of the pay panel recommendation, but finally they too are set for substantial salary hikes.

If everything goes well university teachers will get approximately 30 percent pay hikes on the lines of the Sixth Pay Panel recommendations. 

University grants commission had set up a committee under a former vice chancellor of prestigious JNU to recommend the pay revision needed in teaching fraternity in the universities. 

The GK Chadha committee was under fire recently for not being able to submit its report on time, the same day when Sixth Pay Commission presented its report. 

But Chadha committee has some good news for teachers besides pay raise. It has reportedly favoured raising of retirement age to 65, flexibility to accommodate talent through incentives, grant for working in remote and inaccessible areas and also emphasis on research.

Chadha while making the announcement said, “We will ask all states to invoke a uniform policy on the age of retirement and re-employment of teachers. The uniformity is essential to rid India’s higher education sector of inter-regional disparities”.

Chadha went on to add, “We will focus at the entry level, on those just completing their academics and contemplating a life of teaching. We want to lure them into the profession.”

He added, “We cannot offer the red-carpet treatment that the corporate sector can, but we plan to offer them better research facilities to keep them (faculty) in our universities.”

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Dearness Allowance - Revised Rates.

Recommendation of Sixth Central Pay Commission - Decision of Government relating to the grant of Dearness Allowance to the Central Government Servants - Revised Rates.

New rates of DA has been announced on http://india.gov.in/govt/paycommission.php (http://164.100.50.223/six_pay_comm/allowances.pdf)

From 1-1-2006 : No Dearness Allowance
From 1-7-2006 : 2% of Basic Pay and NPA, where applicable
From 1-1-2007 : 6% of Basic Pay and NPA, where applicable
From 1-7-2007 : 9% of Basic Pay and NPA, where applicable
From 1-1-2008 : 12% of Basic Pay and NPA, where applicable
From 1-7-2008 : 16% of Basic Pay and NPA, where applicable

All the allowances and pension related queries are answered.1.But what about LTC? No circular has been issued by MoF so far on revised frequency and revised entitlement of LTC for CG employees. Any idea about this? 2. What about Family Planning Allowance? No orders on this by MoF so far. I think MoF have forgotten about the above two issues. Who will remind them? All CG employees are eagerly awaiting for the revised orders in respect of the above. Hope MoF sees this site and atleast after this, they issue the above two orders in a day or two without delaying any further so that all CG employees get to know the revised rules clearly without any scope for confusion.

Incentive-based pay set to debut with science & tech department

The Union government will soon offer an incentive-based salary package for employees of some departments and allow recruitment from the private sector on contract, in line with the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission aimed at reforming the bureaucracy.

The department of science and technology, or DST, has already moved to put in place an incentive-based system, said a senior finance ministry official, who didn’t wish to be identified. “Once DST implements it, we expect there will be pressure on other government departments to follow suit,” this official added.
The government on 14 August accepted the Pay Commission’s recommendations, offering 5 million employees an average raise of about 21%.

According to the same finance ministry official, the cabinet has laid down that any government department was free to put in place a performance-related incentive system provided that it is “budget-neutral”, meaning the expense will have to be offset through savings in other expenditure.

The Sixth Pay Commission carried out a study through the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, on a performance-based incentive system. The study was aimed at working out a model whereby a base salary is attached to each post based on skills and responsibility; simultaneously, a second component would be payable over and above the salary on the basis of the productivity and performance of employees, either individually or as a group.

The study recommended an annual bonus of up to 20% to employees whose achievements exceed certain targets; this has been accepted by the cabinet. The government has also given in-principle approval to contractual postings in government departments of employees hired from private sector. Their pay scales and other emoluments will be decided later.
According to the official, the impact had been partially mitigated since the allowances, which are a key part of the emoluments structure, are to come into effect only from 1 September. The full impact would be realised only in the next fiscal; the official declined to share the estimates and Mint could not independently confirm the same.

For women government employees, there are some sweetners. Women employees will now receive 180 days of maternity leave as against 135 days previously. This can now be extended to two years, made up of accumulated leave; earlier this had been capped at one year.

“Another two-year childcare leave has also been granted which can be taken in parts till children reach the age limit of 18 years,” the official said. According to the official, this was the first time such a facility was being extended in government and had been modelled on what has already been adopted in Japan.

The government is also working out details to pay special allowances to paramilitary forces in line with the Rs6,000 per month allowance given to military personnel. Asked whether allowances for the paramilitary forces will be at par with the armed forces, the official said, “We would like to give an edge to the defence forces.”
The official also denied news reports that government has decided to tax 100% arrears that will be paid to government staff. The official said that as government employees will receive only 40% of arrears during the current financial year, they have to pay tax on only this amount.

Govt puts payout of arrears on fast track

To expedite the payment of salary arrears to lakhs of its employees after implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission's report, the government has waived any “pre-check” of the claims they would be submitting.

This has been done to ensure that arrears are cleared at the earliest when the salary for September is paid to employees on the last working day of the month.

The employees would, however, be required to furnish an undertaking so that the government can later deduct any excess payment made to them due to any miscalculation.

Usually, the drawing and disbursement officer in a government office is supposed to verify the salary and arrear bills of every employee but the one-time exception will save the accounts section the additional burden. It will, however, work out the details of
the dues later.

After the new salaries were notified on August 29, the government came out with a detailed “ready reckoner” that took into account each earlier pay scale and the corresponding change in it.

“The calculation of new salary has become easy but some error may occur while calculating the arrears because increments are involved. It is good that the pre-check requirement has been dispensed with,” an officer said.

Although the employees will have to pay income tax on the arrears, most of them are now busy calculating their dues. Only 40% of the arrears are to be paid during the current fiscal and the remaining 60% will be disbursed in 2009-10. The employees have the option to deposit the arrears in their GPF accounts after deduction of tax. For the payment of the hiked salaries, the employees have been asked to submit a statement of fixation of pay after tallying it with the ready reckoner.

The buzz in government offices is also on a possible “anomaly” in the new scales. The pay band system, officers said, is likely to dilute the motivation for promotion because an employee's salary will, anyway, go on increasing annually.

Under the new rules, there are only four pay bands for all employees and officers with assured annual increments. As a result, a large number of employees, despite their in-cadre seniority, would be placed in the same pay band for a considerable period.

“The financial premium on promotions will certainly get diluted. We need to see what impact the new system has on the motivation levels of employees,” a director dealing with accounts said.

Sixth Pay Commission and voluntary retirement

Sixth Pay Commission has brought many good news for central government employees. One of them is on Voluntary Retirement front.

The government officials who wanted to quit their job or retire voluntarily had never had it so good and enticing. It will be like having the cake and eating it too.

In fact the sixth pay commission has all the charms to both entice the government officials to be in job and/ or also prompt him to leave his well paying job.

The mid level or senior government officials who still think that they don’t get the pay package they deserve in their present government jobs may well like to seek a job change and here the new pay commission would help them.

The current practices don’t give full pension to a government employee who does not complete 33 years of services in his job. But the sixth pay commission has reduced this period to just 20 years.

So if you have completed 20 years in your government jobs and hope that you could get better options you can think of shifting to a corporate office without fearing that you may lose on your pension.

Sixth pay commission’s recommendation is this regard has been accepted by the Union Cabinet, along with other recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission on pension benefits for the estimated 3.84 million central government pensioners. Experts said the reduction in the number of years of service to 20 years to earn full pension benefit was a liberal move and would end stagnation in government service.

Another important benefit approved by the union cabinet are raising the gratuity limit to Rs 10 lakh, higher pension for octogenarians, exclusion of earned leave encashed while in service from the overall limit, clubbing of earned leave and half-day pay leave for encashment. Octogenarians will now be paid an additional 20 per cent of their basic pension, while those aged 85 will get 30 per cent more, rising to 100 per cent additional pension for centurions.

Beat this: Your local constable just got a raise from pay panel, Rs 100

They have no fixed timings, no breaks, and at times clock in shifts stretching 24 hours. They have no sanctioned weekly or monthly offs. And to get paid leave, they have to fill out a form that needs sanction of at least four different officers.

The police constable, who forms the lowest rung of the department’s hierarchy, has always felt neglected and the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission will make little difference to his pay or status. The increase? Marginal, from the existing Rs 3050-4590 to Rs 3200-4900.

Senior IPS officers of Delhi echo their concern. A senior officer said, “Salaries of constables are comparable only with semi-skilled workers, though their work is much more complicated and risky. But still the common man mistrusts them, and their own senior officers deal strictly with them.”

A beat constable often has to patrol alone at night, armed with only a baton: he stands with two other constables at police pickets and flags down speeding vehicles with only the ‘protection’ of a police barricade.

On May 15, a constable on picket duty was killed when a speeding tempo hit him in Southwest Delhi.

“We are expected to know everything from various Sections of IPC and CrPC rules to the latest Supreme Court judgments, on the basis of which we have to make arrests or escort suspects to police stations,” a constable said. “Senior officers often lecture us about being courteous, and to have a basic knowledge of English. But where is the motivation?”

A senior officer said constables have to be familiar with people on their beat and depend on them for information. It’s hardly a cakewalk to develop ‘contacts’, though: with transfers and suspensions within months of posting, it is a tough ask to cultivate relationships with people.

A constable’s salary is lower than that of an Army jawan and cops claim they also have similar, or at times worse, working hours and conditions.“Bollywood films show the plight of jawans and highlight their pain at being away from their families,” a constable posted in South Delhi said. “I am from Haryana, and I also see my family once in two months or more. But a jawan’s salary is much higher.”

With the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations increasing a constable’s grade pay by just Rs 100, senior officers say it is increasingly difficult to recruit young men to the post.

Walking the beat
NEWSLINE chronicles the daily routine of a constable posted in South Delhi. He lives in Vaishali, Ghaziabad, and needs to leave home latest by 7 am to make it in time for the daily 9-am meeting with the Station House Master.
9 am: Meeting lasts for about an hour. The staff is briefed about instructions by senior officers and told about places where more security is required.
10 am: Leaves for his beat (each manned by a head constable and two constables). In his beat, he usually visits senior citizens to know whether they are dissatisfied with security arrangements. Beat duty starts after that. Halts at many places — evidently to light up a beedi — are actually meant for interaction with sources.
1 pm: A lunch break. Beat duty resumes after that. He has to be on guard, as senior officers do random inspection.
5 pm: Back to the police station for evening meeting.
If he misses out on that, he is marked absent and the day’s salary is gone.
6 pm: After tea and snacks, it’s back to the beat.
10.30 pm: Day’s final meeting.
11.30 pm: Leaves for home.

NIGHT SHIFT HOURS

9 am: Morning meeting.
1 pm: Take an accused and produce him in court. He has to be on alert because the accused is normally not handcuffed and has to be held by hand.
5 pm: Evening meeting over, rest in police barracks.
Midnight: After night meeting at 10.30 pm, back to his beat.
5 am: Return to the police station and rest; is woken up for morning meeting at 9 am.

Fifth pay panel salaries still elude coop staff

Amid preparations by the state government to implement the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, there are a few who are still struggling to get the salary benefits recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission, which was implemented in 1996.

The employees belonging to ‘Jodhpur Cooperative Consumer Wholesale Depot’ have raised their voices from time to time and have even won court cases, but a government nod is still eluding them.

In fact, like Jodhpur, the salaries of the employees of none of the depots across the state is commensurate with the Fifth Pay Commission.

According to Vikram Singh, secretary of the employees association, it is ironic that other wings of the cooperative department like the Rajasthan State Cooperative Consumer Federation Limited and the Rajasthan State Sale Purchase Cooperative Federation Limited and Dairy have been granted the salary benefits as per the recommendations of Fifth Pay Commission by the registrar’s office but only this particular wing across the entire state has been given a step-motherly treatment in spite of registering remarkable success continuously.