Sixth Pay Commission: Pay hike: Under fire from Antony, Forces call truce

Sixth Pay Commission: Pay hike: Under fire from Antony, Forces call truce

29 Sep, 2008

NEW DELHI: A day after defence minister A K Antony pulled up Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta for crossing the line by refusing to accept the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations, the armed forces went on a damage-control mode, asserting that they had no differences with the government on the issue.

“I just want to clarify that this talk of differences between the armed forces and the government...I think that is not right,’’ Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor told reporters here after laying a wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti to mark the Gunners Day.

``The fact that the defence ministry, the defence minister and the prime minister are with us shows that he (Mr Antony) is also part of the government, as we are. So there are no differences. I think it has been played up a little incorrectly,’’ Gen Kapoor said.

The controversy, however, refuses to die down, with the principal Opposition party, the BJP, taking up cudgels on behalf of the armed forces. “Grievances of the armed forces against the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission should be looked into at the earliest. The prime minister should intervene to resolve their grievances,’’ BJP president Rajnath Singh told reporters on the sidelines of Vijay Sankalp rally organised in Jalandhar on Sunday.

Mindful of the concerns of the personnel belonging to three wings of the armed forces, the Centre had on Saturday ordered release of their ad-hoc arrears for the current year this week, and said the armed forces would submit fresh salary vouchers on Monday, paving the way for the 1.5 million personnel to take home the revised pay on October 1.

It simultaneously set up a three-member panel, headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, to examine the pay-related anomalies of the services. The other members of the high-level committee are the defence minister and finance minister P Chidambaram.

The defence personnel had sought 70% “pensionary weightage” to jawans, placing Lieutenant-Colonels in Pay Band-4, parity of Grade Pay between defence officers and civilian counterparts and according Higher Administrative Grade Plus scales to Lieutenant-Generals and their equivalents in Navy and Air Force in the CPC.

Expressing hope that all their genuine and bonafide requests would be looked into by the committee, the Army chief said: ``We made our recommendations. So let us see how the deliberations go (in the ministerial committee).’’
The remaining 40% arrears would be paid to the defence personnel along with their November salaries, with the government stating that there could be a delay in calculating the amount before the October salaries are released.

The delay is a result of the Armed Forces’ fresh pay vouchers for October salaries likely to land in the defence ministry’s accounts office only on Monday, the government clarified.

While the Armed Forces would take only part arrears, their 3.5 mn civilian counterparts would be paid the entire 40% arrears. The government has already announced the remaining 60% of the arrears would be paid in the next fiscal.

In October, the arrears to be paid to officers from the rank of Lieutenant to Lieutenant-General and their equivalents in the Navy and Air Force would range from Rs 55,000 to Rs 2.25 lakh respectively.

In case of jawans, it would range from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 for ranks from sepoy to subedar major and their counterparts in Navy and Air Force respectively.

After the CPC notification late last month, Naval chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Air chief Fali Homi Major and Army chief General Deepak Kapoor had openly expressed their disappointment over the ``disparities’’ to the country’s political leadership and to Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar.

Mr Antony stepped in on behalf of the Armed Forces by writing to the prime minister and the finance minister, seeking resolution of the four ``core issues’’ of the defence personnel.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com