07 October, 2008 11:23:55
Strongly denying any differences with the government over the pay commission report, the Army on Tuesday said it “neither prepared nor circulated” a document that cast aspersions on bureaucrats alleging they discriminated against the armed forces by misleading the political leaders.
It also said the government and the three services were working together towards resolving all outstanding issues over the 6th Central Pay Commission and the high-level committee, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was already looking into their grievances.
“The army has neither prepared nor circulated any document or note containing allegations or casting aspersions on government officials,” it said, reacting to a news report on a television channel aired on Tuesday afternoon.
Clarifying that there was “no truth whatsoever” in the allegations, it said, “The army headquarters has investigated the claims (of the report) and has found that no such document was ever prepared or circulated by it”.
Vehemently denying differences with the government, the Army said its views on the pay commission have been well articulated by its chief, General Deepak Kapoor, time and again.
“There are no differences amongst the army, the other two services and the government on the issue, all of whom are working together towards resolving the outstanding matter soon. The issue is already before the nominated group of ministers for its consideration,” it added.
The demoralisation of the armed forces personnel over the “discriminatory” pay commission report was aired by the three services chiefs to both Defence Minister A K Antony and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh soon after the government notified the new pay scales late August.
However, the armed forces’ reluctance to implement the Cabinet decision on the pay commission had snowballed into a major controversy, after which Antony had intervened and got the Army, Navy and Air Force to accept the revised pay scales “temporarily”.
The government appointed the three-member ministerial committee headed by Mukherjee to sort out the pay issues raised by the armed forces and announced part payment of this fiscal’s 40 per cent arrears in the pay commission award that came into retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.
Source: http://howrah.org/
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