News in Hindi Paper 'Jagran'

Hindi Daily 'Dainik Jagran' has come up today with a news about probable increse in the pay of the Central Government employee. According to its news article increase will be around 3.2 to 3.3 times of the current pay. 6th CPC is going to give better pay and facilities to senior officers. Pay commission wants report to be implemented from January 2006.

News Paper reports suggests that the salary of the officers of Join Sec. will be around 60 thousand and for Additional Secretary it will be 70 thousand. Officers of the Secretary will get 75 thousand while Cabinat Secretary will get salary around 80 thousand. Apart from this increase HRA will be around 40% of the basic pay.

One more recommendation is to change of name of the junior level posts. Commission wants name of post of the LDC and UDC to be changed to Junior Executive and Executive respectively.
If this report is to be believed, one thing becomes sure that there will be no further increase in the pay of President, Vice President and Governers and Government is having inside news of these recommendations therefore Government increased salary of President to Rs.one Lac.

This news can be read in Hindi here.

Another pay hike for President?

Reports in the media suggest that there could be a second hike for the salary of President, Vice President and Governers etc. if the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission push the salary bar of the government officials above the President or Governers. It is to be recalled that President/ Vice President and Governers etc. got last week a good pay hike. This hike will come into force after the relevant law will be passed out by parliament. So the chances of getting salary more than a lakh for senior bureaucrats is doomed , because of the convention that since government officers serve on presidential pleasure, their salary cannot exceed that of the occupant of Rashtrapati Bhawan. Sources in the Reports suggests that this hike for the Presdient and Governers is an interim measure and once the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission comes, there may be another hike if needed.

This last week hike had sugggested that the salary of the Government Officials will not be much as was anticipated, so this proposal of another hike in salary of President, Vice President etc. will keep Babu's in good anticipation mood as they may expect a good hike in the salary around one lakh for the top posts and relative increase for lower cadres.

No increase in Retirement Age - Government

Government today denied that there is any proposal to increase the retirement of the Central Government Employees.

Following is the text of the Press Statement issued by the Department of Personnel & Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions today, to clarify that there is no proposal before the Government regarding raising the retirement age of Central Government employees from 60 years to 62 years :-

“Attention of the Government has been drawn to reports appearing in some
sections of the media regarding raising the retirement age of Central Government
employees from 60 to 62 years. In order to put at rest all such speculations, it
is clarified that there is no such proposal before the Government.”

Retirement issue sent to CPC : FM

Finance Minister P.Chidambaram informed the Lok Sabha on Friday (23/11/2007) the the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) is expected to give its report before 4th April 2008. Finance Minister said that while the specific issue of retirement age did not figure in the terms of the Pay Commission, the government, however, had forwarded references of the matter to Pay Commission for examination. Altlthough the Pay Commissionm, set up last year has not been asked to consider the issue of raising the retirement age from 60, the commission is assessing existing and future liabilities for government on pay and pensions over next 3 to 4 decades. To ensure that the state governments are able to take the impact of any wage revision, the Pay Commission has also sent a questionnaire seeking details on several counts.

Debate on for Unified Civil Service

There is no unanimity between different Group-A central services and associations representing the All India Service officers (IAS/IPS) on whether a Unified Civil Service will suit India better.

The Sixth Central Pay Commission had sought response from different services on the case for a unified civil service by merging all Central (both technical and non-technical) and All India Services and whether there should be two distinct streams, one embracing all technical services and another for non-technical services.

The Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) and the Indian Information Service associations supported the idea of unified civil services.

The IRS (C&CE) in its memorandum submitted to the Sixth Pay Commission has said "The recommendations of the IRS (C&CE) is to request the Pay Commission to recommend to constitute a Unified Civil Services pool or an Integrated Management Pool, by empanelling officers from various participating Group 'A' services to fill up posts of Joint Secretaries and higher level posts in ministries/departments of the center. The Government could lay guidelines, uniform for all services and conduct a screening by the UPSC."

The Indian Information Service Group 'A' Officers' Association has responded saying "There is a case for unified civil service. All those who come through the common civil service examination conducted by UPSC, be merged to a single service. This is the first step to end disparity among services and render equal treatment to all the services."

The Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) differs from the IRS (C&CE) on the issue.

The IRS (IT) Association has said "In the age of specialisation or super-specialisation, the case for a unified civil service would be difficult to support. In fact, it is more important to end the glaring inter-service disparity and monopoly of one service over senior positions irrespective of the suitability of officers of that service for the post."

The Indian Administrative and Civil Service (central) association has recommended saying "There cannot be a complete unified civil service system. in fact, such an attempt will blur the focus from the IAS."

(Published in Hindustant Times on 19/11/2007)