Shortcomings in Pay Commission report – Central Government employees to stage ‘dharna’ on 25th at Delhi
The Central Government employees are planning to stage a ‘dharna’ on 25th of this month at Delhi protesting the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission’s report, which is considered as being against their interests. S. Mohan, general secretary, Great Assembly of the central government employees says:
“The Seventh Pay Commission has submitted its report to the government. The demands of the 1.5 lakh gazetted officers working in the various departments of censor, income tax, railways, central tax, statistics and central secretariat have not been met. And, no grievance cell for them has been sanctioned. The Pay Commission has also refused to recommend setting up of the cell. And the commission has also failed to accept the already agreed salary index apart from rejecting the demand for a minimum salary of Rs. 26,000. And, it has fixed the minimum salary on an approximate calculation without considering the price index. The aim of constituting the Pay Commission was to revise the salaries of the Central Government employees and workers once in ten years. But, without taking into consideration the revised salary structure, the commission has added only the dearness allowance to the basic salary.
It is said that the salary structure which was increased by 40% by the 5th Pay Commission and 50% by the 6th was raised by 23% by the 7th commission. But in reality, only 16% increase has been effected. The house rent allowance was raised to 30% by the 5th and 6th commissions but, this amount was reduced to 24% by the 7th commission. Travelling allowance as a whole was not revised, only the increase in cost was taken into account based on extra index figures to some extent, but not in proportion to the increase in the actual cost.
The gazetted officers’ demand for bonus has also not been accepted. Also, the commission has announced that the increment to those officers who are in service for more than 20 years would not be automatic but would be given only on the basis of their merit. Also, the premium amount recovered for insurance has been raised up to Rs. 5,000.
The pay of the gazetted officers should be increased on par with the Rs. 5,400 grade recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission. The gap between the minimum and maximum pay is very wide; because the vacancies have not been filled up, the officers are subjected to mental stress due to the added workload.
The Seventh Pay Commission has not followed any scientific method in fixing up the volume of work for the middle level officers. So, the officers have decided to stage a ‘dharna’ protesting the recommendations of the commission that are reportedly against the interests of the Central Government officers.