New Delhi, Sept 28, 2008: After weeks of bickering the government today formed a panel to look into anomalies in armed forces pay in the 6ht Pay commission. The three forces chief had earlier threatened not to implement the pay panel recommendation in protest against anomalies in armed forces pay viz a viz civilian officials.
The decision to form a panel to look into anomalies come after almost two weeks when India’s finance ministry had refused to entertain the idea of revision of pay panel recommendations.
But it was after consistent efforts of the Naval chief Admiral Mehta who pursued the issue from Prime Minister to defence minister and finance minister. He also brought together the chief of Army and Air Force on the issue.
The issue of anomalies had affected almost quarter of the officers of the armed forces.
While talking to media in Thiruvananthapuram Defence Minister A.K. Antony said though most recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission were beneficial to the armed forces, certain issues in the pay revision proposals need to be resolved. He denied that armed forces were going to observe Divali as black divali.
The armed forces chiefs are worried that he anomalies in the pay structure of armed forces officials viz a viz civilian officials can deter many bright young men from joining the armed forces in the future.Even now there is a big gap of officials in the armed forces and the gap is increasing. The sort of talent that the army requires at officers level can easily get several time higher pay package than they actually get in the armed forces in India.
Former armed forces chief General (Rtd) NC Vij had criticized the original Sixth pay recommendations calling it inadequate. In a letter written to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Sigh he had said, “ As a former chief, I feel morally duty-bound to bring this fact to the notice of the Hon’ble Prime Minister in my personal capacity. I take heart from the fact, that it is under your leadership, that, in my tenure, the government went for a major improvement in the ‘operational posture by sanctioning South Western Command and 9 Corps HQs with full complements and also for some restoration of self esteem of the young officers through addressing their delayed promotions-cum-service conditions, by approving Part 1 of Ajay Vikram Singh Committee report’…If this had been followed up, through a balanced PCR and implementation of Part II of the ‘AVS Report’, things would have reasonably improved, but unfortunately the very opposite has happened.”
Stressing on the plight of army personnel he further said, “Sir, you yourself hail from a state, which has traditionally produced soldiers. You would have often wondered, as to why a supremely fit jawan/JCO who retires at the young age of 42-48, ages and grows old so fast. It is because he has no resources to fall back upon to ensure a decent living for his family after his early retirement. This problem gets further accentuated with the constraints of even poor farming conditions. Why should a soldier retire at this early age (other services serve upto 60 years) and why this man who has served the Nation so valiantly not be given a second career by way of ‘lateral transfer’, which alas will never come about”.
Air Chief Marshal Fali H. Major in a letter addressed to Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Indian Navy chief said, “The finance ministry is introducing yet another anomaly by lowering the extant of parities of officers of the armed forces, of the Lt. Col. (and equivalent), by retaining them in pay band-3, while raising similarly placed civilian and paramilitary officers to pay band-4”.
IAF chief added that “It is reliably learnt that civilian and paramilitary officers in the extant pay scales S-24 (Rs.14,300-400-18,300) and S-25 (Rs.15,100-400-18,300) will be placed in pay band-4, whereas the same is being denied to the armed forces officers (Lt. Col. and equivalent) who were already in S-25”.
It is learnt that while the Defence Ministry plans to take up the issue of the signal sent by the Naval Headquarters, Antony is supportive of all the demands raised by the armed forces. However, he wants the Finance Minister to upgrade the pay band of Lt Colonels and their equivalents and restore pensionary benefits of personnel below officer rank as a first step. South Block wants the other demand relating to status of Lt Generals to be taken up separately at a later date….
The finance ministry will have to now prepare itself for a hugely-bloated demand from the defence services in the Budget under the salaries and pension head. In the 2008-09 budget, defence pensions amounted to Rs 15,500 crore and salaries added to upwards of Rs 55,000 crore. As part of the arrears are also payable this year, according to a clarification from the finance ministry, the size of the defence budget is likely to go up by at least 20 per cent next year.
Armed forces want the government to place lieutenant colonels and their equivalents in the Navy and the Air Force in Pay Band-4 (Rs 37,400-67,000), a privilege extended to their civilian counterparts, instead of Pay Band-3 (15,600-39,100). They also want the government to restore the grade pay parity between the middle-rung defence officers (from Captain to Brigadier) with their civilian and paramilitary counterparts.
Source: http://www.khabrein.info/
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