Following is the excerpt of a media report
published in The Economic Times on 29th March 2015. "Welcome to the
behind-the-scenes manoeuvring before the Big Sarkari Pay Hike.
With a
new pay scale for 36 lakh Central government employees, and also
pensioners, likely to come into effect from January 1, 2016, the
officers and non-gazetted staff of various services have been lobbying
hard to get a good deal from the 7th CPC. Unlike in the private sector,
the pay hike in government is a once-in-10-years-affair, making every
CPC, right from the first that submitted its report in 1947, a hugely
powerful agency. No doubt, government employees have to undergo an
annual appraisal process called Annual Performance Appraisal Report
(APAR), but that exercise is important only for promotion, and not for
any pay hike. Government employees do get a regular hike in dearness
allowance, a measure meant for offsetting inflationary pressure on their
earnings, but at the end of the day it is the CPC that fixes the
bureaucrats' pay for 10 long years.
That's precisely why officers and staff of of
every service can't afford to ignore the CPC. Constituted in February
2014 under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar
Mathur, the 7th CPC has an economist and two bureaucrats as its members.
Most of the employees' associations have already had at least one round
of talks with the Commission. And some are waiting for Round II."
"To be sure, a formula towards pay parity has
been the hallmark of the last few pay commissions. A government
entry-level peon now gets a monthly pay of Rs 14,000, if dearness
allowance is factored in. Similarly, a mid-level government driver's
monthly salary, including allowances, is Rs 30,000, at least two times
that of his counterpart in a private sector company. And that's why the
salary gap between the lowest and highest paid government servant has
drastically decreased over the last three decades."
"At present, only three major ministries —
railways, external affairs and post — are not headed by IAS but run by
their own cadres. Now, IPS wants a new department of internal security
headed by a cop and IRS wants a separate direct tax department headed by
a taxman.
Will the 7th CPC venture into such nuances?
Or will it, like the past few pay commissions have, adopt a simple
formula of Multiplier 3 under which the basic salary is hiked by three
times or more depending on the economic health of the nation. If that is
the case, it won't be too hazardous to make a prediction: A secretary
to government of India will get a basic monthly salary (excluding DA) of
Rs 2.4 lakh (current basic salary multiplied by three) and the cabinet
secretary Rs 2.7 lakh from January 1, 2016. And, yes, perks, DA and
other allowances will be extra."
The Central and State Govts. should show their concern about the basic infrastructure facilities such as " Road formation, Rural Electrification, Rural water supply to people, Stoppage of Deforestation, Conserving Agrarian state of India, and ensuring Healthy Citizenship status to every Indian". The Central and State Govts, should give attention to the higher productivity from every Govt. office by suppressing Scandal, Bribes, and Malpractices, not for increasing huge increase of salary. The Govts. should concern about the Private Sector employees in large numbers, who are having no pensionary and social security benefits after retirements. The Govts, should bring suitable ordinance to implement the pensionary benefits, which is to be legitimate on the part of Employers. It is meaningless to increase salary to Govt. Servants, who are 100% getting bribes and involved in scandals, malpractices and sometimes caught red-handed in professional theft and misappropriation too.
ReplyDelete- Heart felt utterances from the social reformer