After making two rounds of presentations to Defence Minister A K Antony pointing out anomalies in the Pay Commission report, the service chiefs will now get a lowdown by the commission itself to "remove misgivings and doubts" about pay hike recommendations.
The service chiefs - who have drawn up a joint proposal demanding more salaries for soldiers, an increase in allowances and a better deal for middlerung officers - will meet key Commission officials on Friday for a detailed briefing. Besides the top Armed Forces brass, senior ministry officials are also ex pected to take part in the meeting.
Sources say the meeting has been called on Antony's insistence as he wants a clear view on the issue before taking up the Armed Forces' case for a "better deal".
"The meeting is being held to remove some misgivings about the Pay Commission to the service chiefs. Defence Ministry officials will also take part in the meeting," a senior official said.
On Tuesday, Antony was presented a joint memorandum, drawn up by the Chiefs of Staff Committee, pointing out "major anomalies" in the salary structure and seeking better salaries for soldiers and middle-rung officers and a rational hike in allowances.
The memorandum proposed major changes in the special Military Service Pay (MSP) introduced in the Sixth Pay Commission. The services have demanded that the special pay should be equated to the basic salary and be decreased progressively with seniority. The panel has fixed Rs 1,000 as MSP for all soldiers and Rs 6,000 for officers.
The other major issue was increases in special allowances for soldiers posted in harsh terrain, active field areas and on counter-insurgency duties. While the panel had recommended doubling of existing allowances for counter-insurgency areas, Siachen postings and high altitude duty, the services have asked for a rational view on the hikes in view of tough service conditions.
(Indian Express 04/04/08)
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Asking for more by all organisations is snowballing.Defence then IPS and now scientists all are unhappy.The main reason is the pay commission carried out its work in total secracy.Even the study reorts by XLRI ,IIM were not published .Had these reports been put on net the correct responses would have come from all and the commotion that is made today could have been avoided.
ReplyDeleteGen Macarthar once said " GOD AND SOLDIER ARE REMBERED ONLY DURING WAR . ONCE WAR IS OVER GOD IS FORGOTTEN AND SOLDIER SLIGHTED ". This is amply evident from the degradation of armedforces officers ranks vis a vis civil by means of a lower grade pay.Milltary service pay doesnot compensate for the trucated carreer .A Lt col retires at 54 when he has grown up daughter son still in the college. With the experience of foot sloger alone no one offers him a good job.There are no avenues of his automatic absobtion in civil services.Is it not unconstitutional in such a big inequality between the civil and defence service.If a Lt Col is to be retired at 54 as a requirement of defence , He should be either absorbed in civil services for remaining 6 years or given salary for remaining 6 years @ last salary drawn.This benfit if given would encourage officers to complete their service tenure and not resort to pre mature retirement.The main reason for a large exodus from army /air force is that going out at 45or below enables them to settle down in second career and no job is available in corporate word at the age of 54 .
ReplyDeleteThe grade pay is to be 40% of the max of earlier scale. But for civil scale namely S25 “15100-400-18300” it is as high as 8300 which works out to be 45.34 % of 18300.
ReplyDeleteIn case of Army for a similar scale of Lt Col 15100-400-18700 ( including rank pay) it is only 6600 which stands to only 35.3% of the max of earlier scale. is it just justice Krishanan.Army is fully justified in their stand that there are serious anamolies