Create Saperate pay commission for forces : Parliament Committee

Permanent Parliamentary Committee on defense matters has strongly recommended saperate Pay Commission for the Armed Forces.

Committee has said that Armed Forces are fighting against Terrorist activities, insurgencies and dangers from within and outside the country, besides giving support in the natural disturbances, therefore a saperate pay commission is required to be created for the forces. According to the Committee, there were many anomalies in the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission for armed forces. For example, pension of Major General was less than Brigadier, not only this but the pension of the Jawan (Sainik) was recommended less than the pension of peon of the Central Government. So, Fifth Pay Commission totally neglected the need and the aspirations of the Armed Forces. Fifth Pay Commission did not pay attention to the problems of the Armed Forces personnels like promotion avenues, living away from family for a longer time, Difficult conditions and danger to the life etc.

According to the Parliamentary Committee, the recommendation of last pay commission has made services of Armed Forces unattractive to the brilliant young men of the country. Because of this, number of Officers in the forces has reduced. In the Army, more than 2000 officers has requested to leave the Army from 2001 to 2004 only. It comprises application of 2 Lt. General, 10 Major General, 84 Brigadier Position of Air Force is more alarming, where most of the pilots want to leave. But on the other hand very few IPS and IAS has left the service.

In the Sixth Pay Commission, no member is included from Armed Forces. Therefore, Parliamentary Committee has decided to make Sixth Pay Commission aware of the service condition of the Armed Force.

40 percent jobs may be cut

Sixth Pay Commission may recommend reduction in the work force by 40% to compensate the probable increase in the payments to the employees.

According to a news published in the Dainik Jagran News Paper, Center for Economic Studies and Policy, which is going to give its report to the Pay Commission, finalising its suggestions that the employee strength should be reduced. Sixth Pay Commission has enthrusted the responsibility to the Centre to study the various financial implications for Terminal Benefits to the employees, in which analysis of the the financial burden on the Government in present and for the the coming 2-3 decades is to be done and to suggest the ways to come out of the the financial mess after implementing the recommendations of the pay Commission are included.

The Centre is of the opinion that financial burden on the government after implementing the possible increase in the salaries can be nullified by cutting employee strength by 40%. Additionally, specialists of the Centre are in the favour of reducing specialist jobs in the Government. They want to abolish the vacant posts in the government. Centre has not finalised its opinion about the nature of the posts to be abolished. Specialists of the Centre will give its report to the Pay Commission with some examples. It will be clealy mentioned that if only the recommendations of the improvement of the financial increment are accepted then it can be disastrous. According to the sources of the Centre, some State governments have directly approached the Centre and given it opinion.

Double our salary, asks forces

A news article has been published in the The Times of India dated 18/04/2007, which says that Security forces wants inclrease of at least double in the salaries, giving reasons "High Risk, Trauma and Turbulence of Services".

the exceprts of the articles are here.

Armed Forces are seeking a hike of over 400% in their salaries and allowances from amounts fiexd by the 5th Central Pay commission, wchich came into ieefect on january 1, 1996."

Since 1996, our salaries have gone up by almost two times, with 50% of the DA being merged with the basic pay and other things. Hence we are looking for a hike by another 200%, roughly double of what we are getting now", said a Fauji.

The three Service chiefs made a joint presentation to Defence minister A K Antony for recommendations to be made to the 6th CPC. Seniors officers say that they have come up with "a mathematical formula" for the pay hike, keeping the country's GDP growth and the rise in the prise index in mind.
Armed forces are pressing for a hike of "4 to 4.5 times" in the 6th CPC over the 5th CPC, with a special "military servicce pay" for the hardship they face.

The armed force are also looking for the implementation of the long-sought one-rank one pension principle, which every political party promises in the run-up to elections but the junks soon after.

The main contention of the armed forces, who are finding it difficult to attract bright youngsters to join as officers due to "poor pay packages and hard lives" is that they deserve to be treated better since teir terms and conditions of service are totally different from other government jobs.


Link : See original articel in ToI here.

DRDO seek four times salary hike

According to a news article published in the Daily Hindustan Times dated 19/04/2007, The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) expects a 400 percent hike in the salaries of the scientists from Sixth Pay Commission to check the rising attrition and to attract talent.

This is the content of article, which I am reproducing here.

In presentation made to Defence Minister, A.K. Antony, DRDO raised demands including "intellectual capital" pay, enhancing study leave from three years to four years and a provision for sending scientists abroad to attend international conferences every two years.

Arresting the exodus of its best brains - over 1400 scientists have quit the DRDO in the last 10 years - has surfaced as big challenge for the organisation. Attrition was particularly high last year when 501 scientists left the DRDO. Led by its head and scientific advisor to the defence minister, M. Natarajan, the DRDO pressed its case for more incentives showcasing the "impressive qualifications" of its scientists in the presentation.

DRDO has sought a share of monetary benefits accuiring from commercialisation of products for scientists, apart from a special incentive for papers published internationally.

In its 14th report tabled in the Parliament last month, the Standing Committee on Defence had advocated formulating a comprehensive national policy to recruit and retain talented scientists.

"The government will have to loosen its purse string for that", a scientist said.

It is clear that at lesat 400% hike is sought by Scientific organisations as salary has been almost double from 1996 so only 200% more required to be increased.

Link : Kindly see original article in HT here.

IR Unlikely

It is learnt from our sources that there may not be any Interim Relief (IR)(as some of you may be waiting) because the Sixth Pay Commission is expected to give its report within this year.

Commission is going to get reports of various studies being done by Management experts and various institutes sometimes in the second part of this year and these reports may be included in the final report of the Commission. This report is exepcted to be submitted to the Govt. at the end of this year. Therefore, it is unlikely that the IR may be announced by the Government.